BX 

8358 
AS 



'-'.' 





sir 



i'ki:sK.vn:i) i»y 



LETTERS 

TO THE 

REV. JOHN MACLEAN, 

CONTAINING 

AN EXPOSITION 

OF THE n 

GOVERNMENT OF WESLEYAN METHODISM, 

WITH 

PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF ITS EFFECTS. 



Remarks on publications by "An Old Methodist. '—"An Eye and Ear Witness; 
and en the conduct and "Re]:";-' of Mr. Maeieesu 

BY T/ALLIX. 
\l 

SECOND EDITION- WITH AN APPENDIX, 

r chaining Animadversions on "An Exposure, Sec by another Lleraber of the 
Methodist Old Connexion." 



Am T therefore become your ENEMY, because I trll you the TRUTH 



SOLD BY R. GROOMBRIDGE, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON; 
W. SHUTTLEWORTH, HANGING-DITCH, MANCHESTER; 

AND MAY BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. 

1835. 



PUBLISHED BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 

AND SOLD BV R. GROOMBRIDGE, LONDON ; AND W. 8HUTTLE WORTH, MANCHESTER. 



DISCOURSES ON THE IMMATERIALITY AND IMMORTALITY OF 
THE SOLE- THE CHARACTER AND FOLLY OF MODERN ATHEISM, 
AND THE NECESSITY OF DIVINE REVELATION.— 8vo. Six Shillings. 
" The title of this volume indicates that these discourses belong not to the common 
order of sermonizing ; and we are led to expect, in the perusal of them, a train of 
thought and argumentation, which v. ill carry the mind of the reader into an un- 
frequented path. In these expectations we have not been disappointed. They have 
been gratified to the full, and in some instances, even surpassed. — Independently 
of those who may he exposed to the assaults of such as are enemies to God, it would 
be well for every friend of truth and virtue to be prepared with aims."— Imperial Mag, 

"The notes appended to these discourses are recondite, numerous, and valuable. 
Chemistry, anatomy, physiology, natural and moral philosophy, metaphysics, and 
history, ancient and modern, are all summoned to give testimony against Atheism." — 
A'ew Methodist Magazine. 

" It would be highly praiseworthy, in such persons as have it in their power, to 
deposit copies of this work in public libraries to which Sceptics and unbelievers resort, 
and in any way to place it within the reach of those who unhappily deny their Maker 
and Redeemer. It is well written, and the argumentation is conclusive." — Wesleyan 
Magazine. 

"Books like this ought to be recommended, and brought under the public eye." — 
Christian Advocate. 

A LETTER TO THE REV. G. HARRIS, CONTAINING REMARKS ON 
STATEMENTS MADE BY HIM IN DEFENCE OF UNITARIANISM. 

Second Edition. With a Postscript containing Observations on the Reply of Mr, 
Harris. 12mo. Price One Shilling. 

MECHANICS' INSTITUTIONS, AND THE UNIVERSAL DIFFUSION 
OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE DEFJENDED ON CHRISTIAN PRIN- 
CIPLES. A Lecture delivered on thfe* l4th and 22nd of January, 1833, on the 
opening of the Sheffield Mechanics' Institution. Price Ninepence. 

THE FALSEHOOD AND FOLLY* OF ATHEISM DEMONSTRATED, in 
three Discourses : with remarks on the Lecture, public character, and history of Mr. 
Carlile. Price One Shilling and Sixpence. 



P. 

MLI,J,QriffUi 



er, High-street. Sheffield. 



r 



lot ©OMO»*»*l 



fwM*l*5222 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



-THE following- letters, occasioned by one of the foulest personal at- 
tacks, both from the pulpit and the press, that ever disgraced the history 
of religious controversy, are laid before the public generally, to enable 
them to understand not only the principles and form of the most des- 
potic government, whether civil or religious, now existing in these 
kingdoms, excepting, perhaps, the papal hierarchy ; but also the extra- 
ordinary means by which that government is sustained. 

To the superficial observer, it may seem strange, that in the midst of 
increasing knowledge, and in connexion with the rapid advancement of 
liberal opinions and institutions, a system of such a character and mag- 
nitude snould have risen up, the movements of which are retrograde to 
those of society in general, and are calculated to give to them a contrary 
direction : but it is yet more strange that such a system should be 
supported by thousands of those, who, in civil society are among the 
most ardent admirers of liberty, and would be the last to compromise 
its claims. The history of Methodism fully explains the first of these 
circumstances ; while those who understand the hold which the preachers 
have on the minds both of members and a large class of hearers, not by 
means of religious considerations merely, but also in consequence of 
pecuniary responsibilities, and family and commercial relations, can 
easily account for the latter. 

It seems of late to have been supposed, that though in civil society, 
liberal principles and forms of government are so connected with public 
rights and general happiness, as to render it virtuous to sacrifice ease, 
or personal liberty, or even life itself in their defence ; yet in the chris- 
tian church, government is one of those trifles, or " circumstantials," 
which either cannot, or does not affect any important interest ; and, 
therefore, may be based on any principles, and put on any form : a 
supposition in itself palpably absurd, and which the whole history of the 
church disproves. If the present state, of Wesleyan Methodism, and 
the present conduct of its rulers, only assist in dispelling this delusion, 
and in shewing the latitudinarians of this class, that despotic principles 
and forms of government, even when connected with the most elevated 




I *» ] 

personal piety, and with institutions preeminently fitted for usefulness, 
become the natural source of innumerable evils, and therefore ought to 
be instantly and for ever banished from the church, a lesson of no trifling 
importance will have been learned, and a benefit of no common magni- 
tude will have been conferred. Such lesson, too, must be learned, before 
the reign of righteousness can become universal. 

With respect to the personalities contained in these letters, circum- 
stances rendered them unavoidable. Still, as the author is much more 
anxious for the prevalence of right principles than for the maintenance 
of his own character, he has laboured to keep the former prominently in 
view, and to advert to the latter as seldom as possible. He has only to 
add, that he sees no cause to regret the severity of the remarks at the 
close of the fourth letter, on the conduct of Mr. Maclean ; more espe- 
cially, as he has since learned that the written document there adverted 
to was actually transcribed in the presence of the friend who took it ; 
and therefore, that a deliberate crime has been committed, is rendered in 
the highest degree probable, if not absolutely certain. What defence 
will be set up, remains to be seen. 

Sheffield, January 19th, 1835. 



Since the publication of the first edition of the ensuing letters, a 
defence of Mr. Maclean has been attempted by an anonymous writer, 
which will be noticed in the Appendix. 

T. ALLIN. 

Sheffield, March 16th, 1835. 






LETTER I. 

TO THE 



REV. JOHN MACLEAN, 

Minister in the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion, 



Rev. Sir, 

It is with much reluctance and with feelings of deep regret that 
I thus publicly address you. Your conduct, however, has left me no 
alternative ; and the only apology I owe is to the public, for delay in a 
work which duty to myself and them required should be expeditiously 
performed. Unwilling, however, to misrepresent or injure either you 
or your friends, I have taken much time and labour to verify statements 
and alleged facts, that I might preserve myself from the charge of negli- 
gence and error, and others from the evils produced by misrepresentation. 
Of my solicitude for correctness, I hope I may appeal to you as a witness, 
so far, at least, as relates to the allegations against yourself: having, 
after I had sought out, collected, and compared information, sent it to 
you, that you might admit, qualify, or deny, as you saw right. The 
same solicitude I have felt in every other case. If, therefore, I have 
erred, it has been unintentionally; and so soon as error is proved, it shall 
be acknowledged and renounced. 

Since writing the above, I have had put into my hands a copy of my 
own address, published by you, without any consent of mine, and, there- 
fore a literary piracy: — published, indeed, for the pretended purpose, 
that "the entire subject may be brought fairly before the public;" but 
in reality that you might gain a dishonourable advantage over one whom 
you are engaged in a fruitless attempt to degrade ; and that you might 
for a short time lead the public astray, by prefixing to the letter as a fact, 
what you could scarcely but know was a falsehood, and by imputing as 
an only motive, what the letter itself proves was not even the principal 
one. 

These charges, Sir, shall in due time be substantiated, to the satisfac- 
tion of every honest mind that will take the trouble to examine. 
Exceedingly do I regret the necessity under which you have laid me of 
speaking out thus plainly. I once thought you honourable, liberal, and 
candid : but your treatment of one of your brethren in the ministry, 
whose piety and talents entitled him at least to courtesy and kindness, 
especially from you — I mean the Rev. S. Dunn, — convinced me that 
I and others had mistaken your character, and that, either in your judg- 
ment or disposition there was more of the lordliness and narrowness of 
your order than I had previously suspected. The report of your doings 
in Norfolk-street and Brunswick Chapels, did not weaken this im- 
pression : still I was willing to hope that most, if not all, was the effect 
of temporary excitement : but even this forlorn hope is done away by your 



piracy, prefaced, as I shall prove it is, by a statement at which its author 
ought to blush — by the imputation of a motive as the only one, the 
influence of which was obviously subordinate — and by an avowal of 
bigotry and littleness, which, though too characteristic of the party to 
which you belong-, would be denounced as a reproach by any other re- 
spectable body of professing- Christians in this country. But while I 
reserve these topics for my next letter, I cannot pass over the following 
note, given by you at the bottom of page 1 : — " The Rev. T. Allin 
having given notice of his intention to publish a letter founded upon 
hearsay reports of certain statements made by me in Norfolk-street 
Chapel, on Sunday, the 23d Ult. it is probable I may, hereafter, have 
to enter more largely into this subject. — J. M'L." The evident in- 
tention of this note, is to represent the evidence on which my account 
of your pulpit exercises rests, as being so questionable or uncertain, as 
to require peculiar caution in those before whom it may be presented, 
and thus to create a previous prejudice against it. Now, Sir, will this 
representation add to your celebrity for manly independence, high 
honour, and unimpeachable integrity, except among such as are resolved 
not to see, when they are informed that these " hearsay reports" are 
collected from your own seat -holders and members ; consequently from 
persons who have no particular inducement to serve me against you, 
except an honest conviction of the truth of what they relate : — that 
they are collected from persons of acknowledged intelligence and re- 
spectability, and some of them of unquestionable piety: — that these 
persons report, not what was told them by others, but that which they 
saw and heard themselves : — that the reports have been collected, not 
from one or two, but from several, and some of them from many in- 
dependent sources : — that when thus collected, they were committed to 
writing, and sent to you by a friend, in order that you might say, if, in 
your judgment, there was any misrepresentation:* — that you were 
requested to furnish in writing, any correction you deemed necessary, 
in order to prevent the possibility of misrepresentation on the part of 
the friend who waited upon you : — that though you verbally offered 
some corrections, yet you declined writing ; lest, as you said, you 
" should fill Mr. Allin's pamphlet." Yet these are " hearsay reports" ! ! 
Sir, I had before heard of a Jesuitical contrivance, by which words might 
be so put together as to be separately true, yet collectively have all the 
effect of a falsehood : how far you have resorted to such a contrivance, 
or proved yourself worthy of the indulgence shewn, each person may 
judge ; for myself, after what I have heard and now see, I must be 
excused if I attach less weight, either to your proposed corrections or 
subsequent statements, than I was disposed to do when I commenced 
this letter. 

The recital of all the circumstances which have led to this address, is 
unnecessary : to you they are sufficiently known ; and others will obtain 
a competent knowledge of them as I proceed. As considerable dissatis- 
faction existed with respect to the Wesleyan polity, originating chiefly 
in the conduct adopted by certain parties whose influence is predomi- 
nant in Conference, in reference to the union of the church and state, 
•Because, as I stated to friends, I deemed it but honourable to give you such an 
opportunity. 



and their treatment of the Revds. Dr. A. Clarke, Stephens, Forsyth, 
Dr. Warren and others — but dissatisfaction, which, to some extent, 
existed previously, and only took occasion from those cases more fully 
to manifest itself, it seems to have been deemed necessary to ward off 
the apparently increasing danger by some extraordinary proceeding. As, 
therefore, the Rev. R. Newton, whose name has of late been associated 
with every anti-liberal measure among you, was engaged to preach in 
Brunswick Chapel, on Tuesday evening, Nov. 25th, when all the officers, 
who could be prevailed upon to do so, were solemnly to pledge them- 
selves to adhere to the Conference as at present constituted — in other 
words, to resist the introduction of lay-members, or even of lay-influence 
into that body ; and as some of their minds might need preparation for 
the part they were expected to act, the previous Sabbath was fixed upon 
for this important purpose. The scheme, indeed, was not confined to 
Sheffield, as the following account from Liverpool will shew : " The 
Methodist preachers in the Liverpool south circuit, having, on the 
evening of Sunday last, 23d November, 1834, contrary to an express 
law of Methodism, made the pulpit the vehicle of abusive attacks on 
the principles and objects of the Methodist Association, the members 
of that body have no opportunity of reply except through the medium 
of the public papers. These attacks we consider calculated to injure our 
characters, both in the church and in the world, and if persisted in, may 
be of serious consequence both to ourselves and families. To the Metho- 
dist public we appeal. 'We speak as unto wise men, judge ye what we 
say.' "* How far the Rev. S. Jackson, from Liverpool, who had been 
with you the preceding week, assisted in your warlike preparations, I, 
of course, know not. Two classes of persons, however, seem to have 
been fixed upon as the objects of attack : the one, those of your o^.rn 
members who deem some reform necessary in the constitution and pro- 
ceedings of your Conference: and the other, those from without, who 
have either conscientiously seceded from you, on account of what they 
deem your despotic principles and form of government ; or have been 
expelled by the ruling party from your community, and have since 
laboured either to lessen the wrongs they have seen perpetrated among 
you, and under which some of them have painfully suffered, or to secure 
the more just appreciation, and the more extensive spread of religious 
liberty : liberty which they believe to be the birth-right of every man ; 
and of which, they think, no section of the Christian Church can be 
deprived without ultimate danger to itself, and immediate injury to the 
character of Christianity. The latter of these parties, you, Sir, and your 
coadjutors have taken great pains to place in another position ; and, in 
order to effect the double purpose of degrading them, and securing the 
adherence of your people to the present constituted order of things, you 
have represented them as actuated merely by the desire to augment the 
numbers of their own party : — a petty, paltry feeling which they as 
much despise as you, and the possession of which they unequivocally 
disclaim. I shall not attempt to ascertain whether this imputation 
arises from the belief, either that they are incapable of being actuated 
by higher motives, or that the subject does not admit of their influence; 
or whether, which I suspect to be the case, they are thus reproached 
* See Christian Advocate, Dec. 1, 1834. 



8 

because you and your helpers have not taken time to pause, and inquiro 
how far such motives may and do exist. On these subjects I shall say 
more hereafter. I may however state, that the low, and false, yet the 
only position which we have been represented as occupying-, in the pre- 
sent deranged state of things, is that of disturbers of the peace of your 
societies for the purpose of increasing our own: and this has been done, 
because some persons cannot, and others will not see any other ; while 
some doubtless feel that this is the only position which their strength 
and weapons are adapted to carry, or in which we can be attacked with 
any prospect of success. In that position, Sir, we are not found ; and, 
therefore, in expending your strength, and exhausting your ammunition 
upon it, you are only beating the air, or perpetuating ignorance and 
prejudice. How far you will deem the latter desirable, or rejoice in it 
as an appropriate recompence, you will determine for yourself. 

The morning service of the Sabbath which was to be desecrated by 
the scene hereafter to be described, was conducted by a circuit preacher 
from some distance, but who, either acting in concert with yourself, or 
moved simultaneously by an inferior degree of the same spirit, gratified 
some of his hearers and offended others, by his attempts to shew, that 
suspicions of wrong principles, or wrong doings, on the part of Confer- 
ence or the preachers, are not entertained, except by "wolves and foxes;" 
— and that unless repented of, given up, and forgiven, they must ensure 
eternal condemnation. Now, Sir, I allow that ministers are entitled to 
respect, in proportion to personal holiness and public usefulness — that 
candour ought to be exercised when judging of their principles and con- 
duct — that in doubtful cases, charity ought, in general, to give a verdict 
in their favour ; — and that, therefore, there are circumstances, under 
which, even suspicion betrays an improper, or even a dangerous state of 
mind. But then the man must be absolutely blind who does not perceive, 
and utterly besotted who will not acknowledge, that there are circum- 
stances under which suspicion becomes a virtue ; and not to be influenced 
by it, would be a dereliction of public duty. And, Sir, either openly to 
teach, or covertly to insinuate, that any class of ministers, whether in 
their individual, or collective capacity, are so infallible in judgment, or 
60 perfect in their principles and conduct, as to be incapable of wrong, 
and are therefore beyond the legitimate range of suspicion, is to bring 
into operation one of the causes of popery, and to put on one of its dis- 
tinguishing characteristics. More especially, when the principles and 
acts of Conference and its agents are exciting the surprise and awakening 
the displeasure of men of unquestionable piety and wisdom in almost all 
branches of the Christian Church in these kingdoms, and are either dis- 
gusting, or driving from your communion, men of the like character 
among yourselves — to pronounce, at that time, the existence of sus- 
picion to be a proof of impiety, and of an exposure to condemnation, 
must betray such inability to discriminate, as is dishonourable to the 
understanding of a professed christian minister; or that reckless disregard 
of truth which implicates his integrity. Such a representation, under 
such circumstances, has in it more of craft than of sound wisdom ; and 
seems rather designed to support the endangered power of the suspected, 
than to preserve the suspecting from everlasting ruin. I can tell you, 
Sir, of n more effectual way by which to preserve yourselves from sus- 



picion, your members from that ruin you seem to fear, and your churches 
from such frequent convulsions, than the application of the terms 
" wolves and foxes" to your people, and threatening- them with perdition : 
— Let them enjoy their rights as intelligent beings, and as constituting 
the great body of the churches : where they cannot individually have a 
share in the management of affairs which are theirs quite as much as 
they are yours, let them have it representatively ; and thus far, at least, 
subject their own affairs to their direct inspection. Give up your as- 
sumed divine right to legislate and govern alone : a right which neither 
in theory nor practice can be consistently maintained, even by yourselves. 
Throw open the doors of your district meetings and Conferences to the 
representatives of your people ; and by giving them a direct voice and 
influence in those arrangements in which they are principally interested, 
convince them that you have no unholy ambition to gratify, or exclusive 
interest to serve. Tell them that they are free to scrutinize your plans 
and conduct to the utmost, and to exercise their undisputed right of 
private judgment on the whole. And you will thus gain to yourselves 
more honour, and confer a greater benefit on your people and the world, 
than by any attempts you either have made or may yet make to support 
a power which must ultimately fall, or to render me an object of public 
execration. 

The discourse in the morning, however, was only the note of pre- 
paration for battle; or the voice of the herald, before the hero was brought 
upon the stage. That hero, Sir, was yourself, whose courage and prowess 
had been tried, and had been sufficient to vanquish your more worthy 
colleague, Mr. Dunn. But before your onset, you addressed the God 
of armies ; though instead of contenting yourself with asking that he 
would teach your hands to war, and your fingers to fight ; — or that he 
would enable you by sound speech to convince the gainsayers ; and, by 
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, to put to flight the 
armies of the aliens, — as though conscious that were your opponents 
allowed fairly to meet you, your qualifications would be found unequal 
to the service in which you had volunteered, you prayed that God wouJd 
paralyze their hands, and parch their tongues ! You attempt, indeed, to 
qualify or soften this, by the statement, that your imprecations referred, 
not to the disturbers of Wesleyanism, but to the enemies of Christ: a 
qualification, which, if accepted, would not take aw T ay, though it might 
somewhat mitigate the offensive or horrifying character of your language. 
But I demur to accept of this qualification, on the following grounds: — 
A man whose years, and intelligence, and christian experience enable 
him to judge, and whose memory and peculiar habits of attention in 
religious exercises entitle his testimony to superior weight, affirms, most 
unequivocally, that, when representing to the divine Being the conflicts 
and perils of your oicn church, and the internal and external foes that 
are arrayed against it, you prayed, with unusual vehemence, that "their 
hands might be paralyzed, and their tongues made to cleave to the roof 
of their mouths." The same testimony, in substance, is given by 
others. Now when it is remembered that, these persons were en- 
deavouring calmly and profitably to follow you in devotion, with minds 
unruffled, until the strangeness of your subject and manner excited their 
surprise, and the language of imprecation shocked their feelings, while 



10 

you were the subject of agitation, perhaps previously produced, or, as is 
stated, strongly evinced in that part of your address; could I even put out 
of my recollection the delinquencies to which I have slightly adverted, 
yet in order to prefer your representation to theirs, I must do violence to 
some of the plainest principles on which the rules of judgment rest, by 
the supposition, that turbulence of feeling is more favourable than calm- 
ness to accurate recollection. For these reasons, then, I feel obliged 
to believe, that the Rev. J. M'Lean, in Norfolk-street Chapel, Sheffield, 
on the forenoon of Sunday, November 23rd, 1834, when professedly 
engaged in leading the devotions of a congregation of Wesleyan Metho- 
dists, asked, that God would paralyze the hands, and parch the tongues 
of some parties, supposed to be the enemies of their church. Many of 
your hearers, therefore, in consequence of what you afterwards said, sup- 
posed, and naturally enough, that the imprecation had especial reference 
to me, in conjunction, perhaps, with Dr. Warren and a few others. Nor 
am 1 at all certain that this was not the case. At the same time, I fear 
it not. The impiety and presumption of such a malediction may shock 
my feelings or awaken disgust, yet so long as it is written, " The curse 
causeless shall not come," it creates no more apprehensions of danger, 
than would be created by the rustling of a leaf or the wafting of a feather 
by the evening breeze. But, Sir, though I never before heard of any 
protestant minister, when professedly leading the devotions of a public 
congregation, having dared to apply language like yours, to the bitterest 
and most formidable enemy of his sect, or even of the Christian Churchy 
and though I believe that very few of your own community possess the 
necessary dispositions for such an act, yet I am not unaware that threats 
of divine judgments, more or less distinct, according to circumstances, 
have been employed to secure the continued adherence of your people, 
and to deter them from asserting that liberty to which some of them 
deemed themselves entitled : and that afflictive events befalling persons 
who had become offensive, by exposing what they conscientiously be- 
lieved to be highly objectionable principles or practices among you, have 
been attributed to the awakened vengeance of an oifended God. To pass 
by other cases which might be adduced, such was the representation 
given of the death of Mr. Kilham ; a man whose sincere and devout piety, 
purity of motive, and uncompromising independence, honourably distin- 
guished him from contemporaries, by some of whom he was first betrayed, 
and then forsaken. I had hoped, indeed, that views so narrow and selfish 
were giving place to more perfect knowledge, and a purer charity, 
having of late heard less of them than heretofore; and in spite of your 
example I will cling to the belief that such is the case : but you, Sir, 
must be left as an exception: for if we are to credit the testimony addu- 
ced, you, in your devotions, have recognized the principle on which such 
representations rest ; carried it out to its utmost limit ; and at once sunk 
your character as a Christian minister, outraged the feelings of the con- 
gregation you were employed to benefit, and insulted that God you 
were professedly addressing, by calling upon him to mark as the objects 
of his vengeance, all who dared either to speak or write against the 
erroneous principles or oppressive acts of the Wesleyan Methodist Con- 
forence. And were your people as willing to imbibe your vindictive 
feelings as you appear to be to infuse them, soon should we hear mom 



11 

than we have ever heard before, of divine vengeance desired, prayed for, 
and inflicted, for acts which both God and every truly liberal man must 
approve. 

But, Sir, were I even to accept your own representation of the lan- 
guage imputed to you, the censure deserved would not be much less 
severe. Did you expect to gain converts or credit to Christianity, by 
praying that God would paralyze the hands and parch the tongues of its 
opponents ? Did the author of our faith thus pray concerning his mur- 
derers ? Did an apostle thus pray concerning even the monster, Nero, 
by whose sword he was to suffer martyrdom ? Do, Sir, before you per- 
mit your violence so deeply to stain both yourself and our common 
Christianity, pause, and ask yourself, whose example you are imitating? 
whether that of your divine Master, who said, " Father, forgive them, 
for they know not what they do ;" or that of his disciples, when they 
asked that fire might be made to descend from heaven upon his enemies; 
and who met with the merited rebuke, " Ye know not what spirit ye are 
of: the Son of man is come not to destroy men's lives, but to save 
them." The spirit, Sir, that ardently breathes in your maledictions, 
according to your own shewing of it, is the persecuting spirit of Popery 
in its worst days ; and the same which in a more mature stage led to 
cursing " with bell, book, and candle," and destroyed the bodies of men 
for the good of their souls. I rejoice, however, to think that it stands, 
where I hope it will ever stand, unparalleled in the history of Protes- 
tantism ; nor do I know of any of those who have most warmly con- 
tended " for the faith delivered to the saints," by whom language like 
yours has been employed, even towards the most malignant enemies of 
God and his Son. 

Your language in prayer, was, however, only a fit prelude to the dis- 
course and address which were to follow. Having been furnished through 
the medium of a friend, with a written account of these, by one of your 
own members, I take the liberty to give it; simply premising, that 
having been read to you for the purposes of correction, &c, you objected, 
as I am informed, to two expressions only, both of which I have omitted: 

" Mr. M'Lean, in his Sermon on Sunday morning, after having in a most shame- 
ful and unbecoming manner, dealt out invective on all those members of our society 
who are endeavouring b}* every lawful and Christian means, to procure a redress of 
our grievances, declared that a council had been held lately in hell, and that some 
men, even ministers among us, who once had run well, were endeavouring to carry 
the wicked counsels into effect ; telling his congregation he wished them to mark 
particularly what he was going to state, for he could not withhold it from them. — 
That a minister of another denomination, nearly allied to our own, who did not reside 
twenty miles from Sheffield, ' I mean Mr. Allin,' had taken advantage of the present 
disturbed state of our societies, and had daringly interfered, by publishing a letter 
[or pamphlet, or address, for I do not remember which,] addressed to the members of 
our societies, in which he impiously attempted to spread discord and disaffection 
amongst them ; persuading them not to sit down with the conduct of their preachers, 
but to leave their Connexion to swell that of his own. He declared there was no mis- 
take, for he had seen one to which Mr. Allin had attached his name. In the course 
of his remarks on the subject, he stigmatized Mr. Allin in a manner, not only unbe- 
coming, but most disgraceful. In fact, I never heard in my life, such a piece of 
personal invective from the pulpit, in any place or by any person, making the least 
pretensions to Christianity, no, nor any thing approaching to it. I am sorry I cannot 
call to mind the particular expressions used by Mr. M'Lean, when stigmatizing Mr. 
Allin, but I know thev were such as raised in my mind, the most revolting feelings, 



12 

Indeed, I waa both astounded mid disgusted, scarcely being able- to believe niv car*. 
1 remember that Mr. Ql'Lean, in the midst of his most disgraceful attack upon Mr. 
Allin, s.ud that lie wished Mr. Allin vrae by bis side, for be would say the same, — 
denouncing bis attempts to produce disunion as most infamous, holding bim up to 
public execration in a manner peculiar to himself. Those wbo know bis warmth, 
may perhaps form some faint idea, — but tbose only. After reading over the above, 
I do most sincerely believe I have not in the least overcharged the picture , for wish- 
ing not to say any thing untrue, I have been careful to be below rather than beyond 
the strict line of truth. I do assure vou I was both grieved and disgusted." 

" Nov. 25, 183-1." 

Similar feelings to those described in this communication were pro- 
duced in the minds of others. One pious female, a member of yours, 
states, that agitation, produced by mingled feelings of astonishment and 
disgust, caused her whole frame to shake, and at tinies rendered her 
almost insensible ; while other members of yours left you in disgust. 
Most happy, Sir, should I have been could I but have stated, that, your 
anger having spent itself, you here suffered the conflict to close ; — that 
on returning to your home, what you had felt, and the feelings you had 
seen excited in others, had led you to reflect on the awful extent to 
which you had desecrated the Sabbath, the pulpit, and the name of that 
God whose messenger you professed to be ; — and that, deeply humbled 
under a conviction of your misdoings, you had afterwards manifested a 
different spirit. But, no : the principal parts of the same tragedy were 
repeated in the evening in Brunswick Chapel ; at which time, though 
there was less of profanity, yet of personal abuse, bitterness and violence, 
there was little diminution. The cause you allege for the abuse so 
plentifully heaped upon me, I shall examine in my next letter ; in which 
I shall give the address to the Delegates in Manchester, with a true 
account of the circumstances under which it was prepared, and the parties 
to whom it referred ; as well as notice the remarks prefixed to your 
pirated edition of it, and some of the gross inaccuracies and imputations 
of an anonymous libeller, whose name must be concealed, lest he should 
be visited with that public reprobation which the author of such a pro- 
duction so well deserves. 

There are, Sir, as you are aware, other allegations arising out of your 
performances on the 23rd ult., but which I at present pass over, not 
because I either deem them unimportant, or doubt their truth, but be- 
cause I am not influenced by that malignity towards Wesleyan Metho- 
dism and Wesleyan Methodist preachers, which some have imputed to 
me. I do, however, wish you to see yourself, as well as the precipice 
on which you and some of your brethren stand. Shutting your eyes 
to the defects and evils of your system, you look only at the good ac- 
complished, till it becomes the object of an admiration almost idolatrous ; 
and spiritual pride, — impetuous passion — and ungoverned resent- 
ment — with their odious train of maledictions and persecutions, are 
the natural result. 

With the sincerest prayers for your welfare and increased usefulness, 

I am, Rev. Sir, yours, &c, 

T. ALLIN. 
Sheffield, December 6, 1834. 



LETTER II- 



Rr.v. Sir, — To take an unfair advantage of an opponent, or even of an 
adversary, is a characteristic of littleness of mind, and indicates a con- 
sciousness either that the cau<e espoused cannot be defended by honourable 
means, or that, through incompetency, the espouser cannot so defend it, 
That this has been done by you, most persons of whose judgment I have 
received any information, except your pledged partisan?, have already 
pronounced. But in that judgment, if I am not much mistaken, many 
others will concur when "the entire subject is fairly before them." An 
address, prepared under circumstances which shall hereafter be explained, 
you first brought before the public in the pulpit ; and, after having laboured 
with your characteristic ardour to degrade me in places where you knew I 
was not present, and w r here, had I been, I should have had no liberty to de- 
fend myself, as though to shew with what rapidity you could move in the 
dishonourable career you had thus commenced, you proceeded to publish 
it ; — an address which was not yours, and which you had no more right so 
to appropriate, than an atheist would have to publish for his own benefit, 
the " Discourses on Atheism." 

In proof, too, that your object was not to supply the public want, as 
intimated by your printer, nor yet simply to bring " the entire subject 
fairly before'* the public, as professed by yourself, but to gain an addi- 
tional opportunity of giving your own account of the author and his work, 
and thus of prejudicing the public mind in your own favour, the pirated 
address was not published alone, evidently from a fear that some would 
not see it through the perverted medium you had placed before your own 
eyes, and that unless you could contrive to place the same medium before 
theirs, your object would, after all, be defeated. That medium you there- 
fore furnished. And it may be, some, under the influence of the decep- 
tion thus practised upon them, have joined you in your revilings. But, 
surely, if they make the least pretensions to candour, having admitted the 
charge, they will carefully weigh the defence ; and then I hesitate not to 
predict the termination of their delusion, and the shortness of your 
triumph. 

The following is a brief, yet accurate compendium of the circumstances 
which led to the address : — Your district meetings and Conference having 
trampled on the rights of both preachers and people, more especially in 
relation to the Leeds case and the great question of Church Reform — the 
latter of which had led to the humiliation of Mr. Hudson ; also, first to the 
suspension of the Rev. J. Stephens, and then to his resignation, lest you 
should have the honour ofexpelHng him — dissatisfaction or disgust had 
been awakened, not onlyin the minds of many belonging; to other Christian 
churches, but also among your own members and friends in different parts 
of the kingdom ; and which feelings they had expressed, in various publica- 
tions, in no measured terms. Separations from your societies had., there- 

c 



14 

fore, taken place, not merely in Ashton, where Mr. Stephens resided, but 
in almost every part of the circuit, as well as in Halifax, and several parts 
of the Oldham circuit ; and separations, which, in some cases, had left you 
but a small minority behind. In other instances separations ivere deter- 
mined upon, so soon as Mr. Stephens and his friends had matured and 
made known their plans : while in other cases it was undetermined whether 
at once to unite with the separatists, or to remain with you, to employ 
whatever influence might be possessed or obtained, in securing the exten- 
sion of liberal views, and the adoption of such measures as should ulti- 
mately oblige you to reform your constitution. A general meeting of 
these parties, or rather of delegates representing them, was called by public 
advertisement, to be held in Manchester, September 24, 1834, to determine 
respecting their future religious associations, and to take into considera- 
tion the measures to be adopted to induce the great body of the Wesleyan 
Methodists to unite with other classes of dissenters on the church question. 
The parties who had left, or had already resolved on doing so, had to 
determine whether they would join some religious body already formed, 
or add another to theexisting Christ'an denominations ; and the remainder 
had to state whether they would make common cause with the others, or 
whether, by keeping up and extending agitation in your body, or by 
withholding supplies — both of which measures had been previously pro- 
posed — force you at last to yield to their demands, and adopt a more 
liberal constitution. With the general view of the parties about to assem- 
ble, I was made acquainted. I knew that some would be for leaving you 
at once ; while others, bound to you by endearing recollections, family 
relationships, and pecuniary responsibilities, purposed to remain; only, 
however, under an expectation of being able to accomplish the objects 
already stated. I also knew that several of the other parties would pro- 
pose a union with the New Connexion, while others would prefer the 
establishment of another religious sect. Such were the only parties 
to whom the address was directed : parties, the great majority of whom, 
were not, at the time, connected with you ; and the remainder were with 
you in a state which your Conference has pronounced to be " schism :" a 
state, therefore, more dangerous to themselves, and I should imagine less 
desirable to you, than entire and honourable separation. 

Believing, as I did, and as I do still, that the " delegates" and their con- 
stituents had abundant cause of complaint in the proceedings of your 
Conference and the doings of its agents, and that these naturally arose, 
not out of adventitious circumstances, but, out of your despotic principles 
of government by which the churches are excluded from all direct voice 
and influence in those assemblies properly denominated legislative, and in 
which, therefore, they have the deepest interest, I deemed it right to 
express to them my views of the occasion of their meeting, as well as of 
that object deemed by me the most important one — their future religious 
associations. With respect to that object, 1 knew the great question would 
be, first, whether those united with you would remain in a state denomi- 
nated by you "schism,*' and for purposes which you denounce as factious, 
or at once leave and make common cause with the others ? And, second, 
whether the separatists would form themselves into a distinct religious 
denomination, on the congregational plan,— or join the New Connexion? 



15 

And, Sir, believing that the spiritual welfare and peace of all these parties, 
and the public interests of religious liberty, would be best promoted by 
a union with the Methodist New Connexion, it became me, as a matter 
of public duty, openly and honestly to propose that course. 

Such is a brief statement of the circumstances under which the address 
was drawn up ; hastily, indeed, as my friends well know, and therefore not in 
every respect so cautiously as perhaps it might have been ; and such are 
the principles by which I was actuated. The circumstances I challenge 
any one to deny, and the address will be found to accord with them ; 
the principles I shall hereafter defend. This, then, Sir, and nothing less 
than this, " is the entire subject" to which my address has relation ; and 
these are the only relations it has to that subject. These, therefore, are 
the circumstances necessary to a correct understanding of it, and without 
which " the entire subject" is not " fairly before" the public. That when 
you published it with your " Introductory Remarks," you should have 
believed that you had placed " the entire subject fairly before" your 
readers, I cannot conceive : as in order to this, I must give you credit for 
such profound ignorance of the affairs of your own church, as is incompatible 
with the knowledge assumed as the basis of your remarks ; and ignorance 
which would be indeed disgraceful to any man occupying a public situa- 
tion in the church, and professing to feel a peculiar interest in its order 
and prosperity. Sir, I feel myself called upon distinctly to avow my con- 
viction, that some of the preceding circumstances were perfectly known to 
you, but were studiously concealed, lest, if stated, they might prevent or 
weaken the impression you wished to make to my prejudice. Your own 
conscience, unless it is more inert than I think it to be, will support 
this charge. 

The preceding statements will enable the public to ascertain the degree 
of truth contained in your first proposition — that "the persons to whom 
the letter was written, were at the time, members of the Wesleyan Methodist 
Society.'' Had you intended your readers simply to understand, that 
some of the persons addressed were of this class, there were forms of ex- 
pression sufficiently numerous, and which your ingenuity could easily 
have supplied, for the purpose of stating that fact. But passing by all 
those forms, and without giving the most distant hint that there were any 
other parties, you have affirmed, without exception, that " The persons-*- 
were at the time' f &c, thus not only leaving, but leading your readers to 
conclude, what some of them at least have concluded, notwithstanding 
what appears to the contrary in the address itself, that the persons for 
whom it was intended, were, without exception, at the time, members of 
yours. Now, Sir, when you published that proposition, you knew that the 
address was designed for parties who had seceded from you, on account of 
your conduct on the Church-reform question, and your treatment of Mr. 
Stephens ; as well as for some others, who, at the time, were members in- 
deed, but whose affections had been previously alienated from your polity, 
and who were disposed to remain, only on the consideration that they 
could oblige you to change it. And before you published a proposition so 
unqualified, you ought to have known, that the proportion of the latter 
parties was but small. But, Sir, had it been otherwise — had all the parties 
addressed been at the time members of yours, yet I maintain, that con- 



16 

ng the opinions entertained both by myself and them— the situation 
hich they stood — and the professed purposes of their meeting — I had 

disputable right to address them as I did. In order, however, to con- 
ceal such right, or to discredit it, while you evade any fair and manly dis- 

m, you attempt to fritter down the points of difference, or the grounds 
of complaint, into insignificant trifles. They are " theoretical defects," 
even " the existence of which is yet to be proved" — and " mere circum- 
stantials," with which, amidst so many important matters that lie before 
us, it is criminal to meddle ; or by the disturbing of which, the compact, 
into which we are supposed to have entered as supporters of Bible So- 
cieties, &c, is dissolved. As you have not favoured us with the principles 
on which these views are founded, and as the subject is of great practical 
importance, I beg to present, for correction if you. please, the following 
brief statements. I have heretofore thought, that every man, as an in- 
telligent, but more especially as a morally accountable being, possesses an 
unquestionable right to direct the attention of his fellows to whatever is 
considered by him as evil ; and, at least by the presentation of truth, to 
labour for its removal : and that, though prudence, or charity, or friendship, 
may influence the exercise of this right, yet it cannot be taken away. 
And, Sir, I have never yet seen reason to believe that the most important 
objects of attention and pursuit, are to be the only ones ; or that, in those 
objects, because they are supremely important, every other is to be merged. 
I know that courtesy and kindness are due to the persons of men, espe- 
cially to the truly good, however weak or erring ; and that the opinions of 
such as are eminent in wisdom, are entitled to deference and respect : but 
I have yet to learn that I am not at liberty to form my own views respect' 
ing both the opinions themselves, and the practices to which they give 
birth ; and to express those views, in terms which shall correctly designate 
both, according to the character which they appear to me to bear : so that 
I may ascribe weakness, or error, or folly, even to a wise and good man, 
with respect to some particular opinion entertained by him, or some par- 
ticular system, or branch of a system, to which he has attached himself, with- 
out either impeaching his general integrity, or degrading his general charac- 
ter, or justly forfeiting his esteem. Nay, farther than this, I have hitherto 
imagined that particular principles, or actions, or systems, or parts of sys- 
tems, conscientiously believed to be bad, may be designated according to 
their supposed obliquity, and the supporters of them advised either to 
withdraw that support and call for a removal of the evil, or attach them- 
selves to that which better deserves their regard ; — and I have thought 
that all this may be done, without any violation of Christian charity. 
And farther still ; when the evil character of particular principles is mani- 
fested by their destructive effects — when, by existing circumstances, the 
connexion subsisting between them is made so apparent that the careless 
are obliged to see it — and when, by these means, Providence seems to be 
at once pointing out the evil, disposing the minds of men to abandon it, 
and loudly calling upon them to do so, then, 1 conceive, that not only does 
liberty allow, but duty requires those under whose observation the evils 
fall, to •■ Cry aloud— and shew the house of Jacob their sins :'' then, Sir, 
charity itself, which looks at the public, as well as at particular parties, 
requires that the axe be directed to the root of the tree, the bitter fruits of 



which are exciting nausea and disgust ; so that, by the removal of tha 
cause, similar effects may in future be prevented. Proceeding on these 
principles, he who believes speculative Antinomianism to be unscriptural 
in its character and immoral in its tendencies, though not unfrequently 
combined with much of truth, and holiness, and usefulness, must feel him- 
self bound to oppose it ; though, so long as its tendencies are kept in 
check, either by other and better principles, or by adventitious circum- 
stances, the warning voice may be raised in vain. But when, in some 
strongly marked case, its tendencies are made signally manifest, he will 
embrace the opportunity, as furnished by the God of Providence, to hold 
up the monster to the execration it deserves ; and were even a Dr. Hawker 
to throw over it the mantle of his amiable spirit and holy life* yet would 
he feel himself bound by the claims of truth, of holiness, and of charity 
itself, to pronounce it odious, and call on its adherents to abandon its 
cause. 

These, Sir, are the principles by which I have endeavoured to regulate 
my conduct. During the last thirty years, I have seen what appeared to 
me, the despotic character of your ecclesiastical polity : its tendency also 
to corrupt you, both by infusing an inordinate love of power, and by be- 
traying you into oppressive, arbitrary measures ; and at the same time, 
deeply to injure your people, by withholding their rights, and subjecting 
them to inequitable acts. I have also publicly and privately avowed the 
convictions I entertained, and under which I felt constrained to act. Still 
you went on, until multiplied aggressions brought the true character and 
tendencies of your principles more fully out before your own people and 
the world. Thousands of your members saw their degraded situation, 
and felt their bondage. Many threw off the yoke ; whdst others were dis- 
posed to bear it a little longer, that they might try, by " factious opposi- 
tion," as it is termed among you, to oblige you to remove it from their 
necks. I saw, Sir, those encroachments and abuses of power, (some of 
which shall be given in my next) by which " the peace" of thousands, if 
not " of the whole Christian world, was offended against ;" and those rights 
invaded, and those principles of liberty violated, without which, peace 
itself becomes worthless, and the most painful strife honourable. To 
those, therefore, who felt something of the injury done both to themselves 
and the common cause of Christianity, I spoke plainly and honestly — I 
lamented their wrongs — I censured the doers of the wrong — I combated 
the ignorance and prejudice of which I had too much reason to believe 
they were the subjects — and I pointed them to the principles and dwel- 
ling-place of true liberty. That in doing this, I was influenced solely, or 
even principally by sectarian views, I most unequivocally deny ; and in 
support of that denial, I appeal to the address itself, as well as to the whole 
course of my conduct towards those religious bodies, in which Christian 
freedom is combined with the doctrines of the cross. Sir, only yield to 
your churches that liberty to which I believe they are entitled, and which, 
so far as the Head of the Church may give me ability and influence, ours 
shall have, and I am satisfied. From my sectarian spirit, predominant and 
violent as you would represent it to be, you shall not hear another whisper 
of complaint, nor see another effort to disturb your tranquility. Would 
you but do this, such is my sectarianism, that I would go down to the 



18 

grave content to see the light of our little planet lost in the superior 
splendour of your sun ; and the ultimate extinction of my own sect ren- 
dered inevitable, by the liberality, the expansion, and the surpassing use- 
fulness of yours. At the same time 1 ought openly to state, that should 
you resolve to adhere to your present principles, and pursue your pre- 
sent course, neither your complaints nor maledictions, neither the 
blackening process of personal defamation ten thousand times repeated, 
nor any fear of the displeasure or opposition of any man, will deter me 
from employing every means which Providence may furnish and conscience 
dictate, in denouncing your principles as despotic, and your conduct as 
unjust. 

You state, Sir, that the existence of" theoretical defects in the govern- 
ment of Wesleyan Methodism" " is yet to be proved." But if that is de- 
fective which is contrary to the dictates of enlightened reason — if that is 
defective which is at variance with the principles and facts embodied in 
the New Testament — if that may be pronounced defective which is op- 
posed to almost all other protestant churches — and if that is infallibly de- 
fective which is naturally productive of much evil, both to the governors 
and the governed — then may it safely be concluded that "the government 
of Wesleyan Methodism" is defective. The proof furnished by en- 
lightened reason and the New Testament alone, is of itself more than suf- 
ficient ; and has convinced thousands even among the Wesleyans, as well 
as tens of thousands of other classes of Methodists. Before Wesleyan 
Methodism existed, that proof convinced most classes of the Reformed, 
— whether established, or not established ; whether Presbyterians, Con- 
gregationalists, or Moravians. These all maiutained, and they still main- 
tain, that the people, who constitute the church, and for whose benefit 
ordinances and offices are appointed, are entitled to a voice and direct 
influence in the enactment of necessary laws, and the transaction of im- 
portant affairs. All these classes must therefore suppose that Wesleyan 
Methodism is defective in a fundamental principle of government — viz., 
the right of the people to a voice in the management of their own concerns. 
And yet defectiveness is not proved ! Tell us, then, that the existence of 
God is not proved, because the atheist disbelieves it ; or that the divine 
mission of the Redeemer is not proved, because rejected by Jews and 
Deists ; or that his godhead is not proved, because it is not admitted by 
Unitarians ; or that not anything is proved, which any one chooses 
to deny! — We, however, are not yet at the end of your subterfuges: 
for this, if proved, is a " mere circumstantial ;" that is, as 1 under- 
stand it, one of those trifling, unimportant things, which, having no 
injurious influence on the dispositions, or conduct, or rights of any 
party concerned, ought not to be made a subject of contention. How 
this comports with the claims set up of late by you, to a divine right 
to govern the church alone, I do not understand. Or, were the case as 
thus represented, yet, to an impartial observer, it would seem that you 
would no more be justified in contending for such a " circumstantial," than 
any one else in contending against it. But, Sir, to tell us that the right 
of any society to a voice in every thing relating to its own government, is, 
in this low sense of the term, a "mere circumstantial," is to tell us, either 
that you do not understand wherein true liberty consists, or that you 



19 

deem it of little worth. Try, however, to degrade it as you may, the 
right you would thus diminish or conceal, remains that " circumstantial" 
which forms the broad and well-defined line between a liberal government 
and a despotic one, and between a free people and one enslaved : — it is 
that " circumstantial," in defence of which, in civil society, it has justly 
been accounted the highest point of glory to suffer and die ; while lightly 
to esteem it, has with equal justice been deemed a characteristic of the 
stupidity which knows not how to appreciate the highest earthly good, or 
of the venality and baseness which will sacrifice that good on the altar of 
inglorious ease, or sensual pleasure: — it is that " circumstantial" which 
tyrants view with deadliest hate, and for which patriots contend even 
unto blood. Nor is it less intimately connected with religious, than it is 
with civil privileges. The neglect of that " circumstantial'' produced in 
the church most of the errors that corrupted, the dissensions that rent, 
and the persecutions that devastated it. Out of that neglect Popery arose, 
with all its usurpations, and superstitions and crimes ; and out of the same 
neglect, the spirit of Popery is rising among you, and some of its charac- 
teristics are already assuming a distinctness of form, which the careful 
observer cannot but perceive. Sir, the concentration of power in 
Christian ministers, and its subsequent abuse by them, is that " circum- 
stantial'' which has produced the odious thing so characteristically, yet, 
alas! so justly denominated PRIESTCRAFT; — a thing from which, 
whether I see it in the shadow or the substance, near or afar off, I shrink 
with irresistible, and, what you may deem, morbid abhorrence. Of all the 
curses which have impeded the progress of " the glorious gospel of our 
God and Saviour," this has been the heaviest and the most terrible ; and 
of those storms which have ravaged to the widest extent, and scattered 
the mightiest mischiefs, and produced the most utter desolation, this has 
been the rousing and directing spirit. 

You may imagine that by denying to the church its rights — by denominating 
those rights, " mere circumstantials" — and by defending priestly usurpations and 
injustice, you are serving the cause of Christianity, checking the course of abounding 
wickedness, and depriving infidels of those weapons from which religion has the 
most to dread. But at such imaginations infidels laugh. Were they to engage you 
as a secret spy and crafty counsellor in their cause, such is the precise course they 
would direct you to adopt. And were Satan indeed to " hold a council in hell," ac- 
cording to your representation, and were he to display but half the wisdom and craft 
which you would attribute to him, his advice would be, that you and your compeers 
should continue to hold with unyielding grasp the power you now possess, and exer- 
cise it to the same unrighteous extent. Sir, to purge away corruptions, and not to 
vindicate them, is the only plan to wither the arm of infidelity ; — and cheerfully to 
surrender to the people their rights, instead of withholding them, is the likeliest 
method to ensure the purity, and peace, and prosperity of the church. 

The most terrible of all the terrific consequences of my conduct, you reserve for 
the close of your remarks. You say, " If such conduct is to be manifested by one 
Christian denomination towards another in reference to mere circumstantials, any 
thing like union amongst the different sects is at an end. The basis of Bible and 
Missionary, Tract and Temperence societies must be contracted to the limits of our 
respective parties." — I must crave your indulgence, Sir, when I state, I was not before 
aware that the basis of the Bible Society was an agreement, either recorded or under- 
stood, that its supporters would lower the standard by which they had previously 
judged of each others 1 peculiarities ; or relax their exertions for the removal, from 
any portion of the church, of whatever they had considered as evil, whether called a 
" mere circumstantial" or not. I had thought that these matters were left untouched ; 
and that, instead of attempting to narrow the liberty before claimed by the different 



20 

Beets, the promoters of the Bible Society had left them unfettered , to exercise it to the 
fullest extent Such, I am sure, were their professions ; and such, I am happy to 
add, has been their practice. You may attempt to foist into the agreement an inter- 
polation of your own, binding all to shut their eyes against the crying evils of your 
government, or to cease from publicly denouncing your oppressive acts : but no one, 
except yourselves, will ever recognize the forgery as an original term of agreement, 
or practically submit to its claims. Will you prevail on the Friends to believe that 
they have entered into a contract with the projectors and supporters of the Biblo 
Society, no more to denominate churches, " steeple houses," and stated ministers, 
"hirelings?" Will you induce conscientious dissenters to suppose that they have 
thus surrendered their liberty to call and to attend public meetings to petition, and to 
try to induce as many as possible to join in petitioning, that they may share privileges 
from which the church has debarred them — that the prerogatives of bishops may be 
limited to spiritual things — and that the christian ministry may be left to rest on the 
affections and voluntary support of the people? or that they are pledged not to write 
or distribute tracts, to whatever extent they please, on the evils of establishments, and 
the necessity of entire reform ? Or will you persuade even all pious members of the 
establishment that they have thus incurred an obligation no more to think dissent an 
evil, or no more to preach and write against it as such? No, Sir; T am sure you will 
not; I hope you will not By the friendly intercourse which such societies create, 
unnatural jealousies maybe subdued, asperities softened down, charity enlarged and 
invigorated, and even differences in opinion lessened : and in these, as effects, I rejoice ; 
but as the basis of such associations, I utterly repudiate them. On the boards of a 
Bible Society, I see the warmest and most public advocates and opposers too of what 
you call " circumstantials," but which, though deemed little, when compared with some 
other things, yet in themselves and their results are accounted of sufficient importance 
to merit a share of attention. And cannot they forget, or merge their differences, 
while promoting a great cause in which they have a common interest? Yes, Sir; and 
I glory in the name of Christian, when I see men, who, in the consciousness and ex- 
ercise of that freedom which is one of the honours of our common nature, differ in 
sentiment on subjects felt to be important, and act energetically upon their convictions, 
and who, while giving each other credit for all the excellencies which they or their 
respective systems are believed to possess, honestly point out defects or corruptions, 
and call loudly for reform ; yet on great public occasions, and in support of public 
institutions, can merge all differences in first principles — -recognize their common 
relation to the same Lord — give to each other the hand of a common fellowship, 
and breathe only the charity which does good to all men, especially to the household 
of faith. I have seen this Christian magnanimity — this true elevation of mind — 
this expansion of soul — and 1 have felt my nature and my religion honoured by it. 
But this is an elevation of which you can form no conception ; an expansion to which 
you cannot stretch : — well, be it so ! — but then, do be satisfied to measure yourself by 
your own standard ; and if you are dwarfish or contracted, do not make your own 
littleness either the universal or even the common measure of your species. In the 
name of our common Christianity, which you would thus dishonour, — in the name 
of many of all sections of the Christian Church, not even excepting your own, whom 
you would thus degrade, — I denounce your doctrine as the fiction of intellectual weak- 
ness or sectarian bigotiy. If, Sir, you find any pleasure in views like the^e, do be 
content to enjoy it in your closet, but never again proclaim them to the world. 

I am, Sir, 

Yours, very sincerely, 

T. ALLIN. 
Sheffield, December 13th, 1834, 



TO THE 

WESLEYAN METHODIST DELEGATES 
ASSEMBLED IN MANCHESTER. 

Christian Brethren, 

THE circumstances under which you have assembled are peculiarly interesting to 
every mind duly impressed with the importance of religion, or wishful for the exten- 
sion of the interests of Christian liberty. You and the various bodies which you 
represent have had your eyes opened, either by reading and reflection, or by the 
wrongs you have seen perpetrated, to the oligarchial despotism that governs among 
the Wesleyans ; defacing the beauty, disturbing the peace, and diminishing the use- 
fulness, of one of the noblest productions of the providence and grace of God which 
the present age has seen. You have witnessed the gradual developement, and the 
approach to gigantic power, of principles which not only deny to you all judgment 
and voice in the affairs of your own churches, except so far as the oligarchs choose to 
allow you to think and speak, but even trench on your civil liberties, and threaten to 
bind you as closely to the chariot wheels of your masters, and to drag you as servilely 
after them, in civil, as in ecclesiastical politics. Injured in your rights, and some of 
you insulted in your persons, by men whom you have been instrumental in bringing 
out of obscurity, and for whose usefulness and support your sacrifices and privations 
have been many, you have wisely and heroically resolved to throw off the yoke, and 
to claim the liberty to which the laws of God and your country alike entitle you. The 
object of your association is one of the noblest the human mind can propose; and is 
second in importance only to the great work of salvation itself; a work, indeed, which, 
in many cases, it unquestionably involves. The eyes, therefore, of the religious 
public are turned upon you. The friends of liberty are elate with hope : the abettors 
of despotism are filled with fear. In your present association the one see the cloud of 
glory placed before the Israel of God, about to shed upon them the light of divine 
guidance, and destined to lead them from a land where abundant provision has been 
combined with cruel bondage, to a happier inheritance, in which, together with pro- 
vision equally rich and plenteous, they will share the immunities of the freed-men 
of Christ Jesus. But the others behold a cloud portentous and appalling; combining 
in itself the elements of destruction ; and about to involve their usurpation in dark- 
ness and ruin. Their only hope is either in your disunion, or in your attempts to 
raise a structure, too frail ultimately to resist the adverse powers that will be arrayed 
against it. The situation in which you are placed, is, therefore, one of the highest 
responsibility. In your hands is placed the power to benefit or injure, to elevate or 
depress the cause of freedom among the Wesleyan Methodists; and either to augment 
its strength, and multiply its triumphs, or to betray it into the hands of its enemies. 
And if ever perfect disinterestedness, Christian patriotism, wise caution, and the sa- 
crifice of personal prejudices and expectations, to great public principles, were im 
perative on any class of men, they press with all their claims, and with all their 
obligations, upon you. 

Judging from information received from various quarters, two great questions are 
likely to come before you. First, — Will you and your constituents remain with the 
Wesleyan Methodists, in hope of effecting a more speedy and extensive reform in 
that body; or will 3 r ou at once separate from it? Second, — In case of separation, 
what system of ecclesiastical polity will you adopt I 

On the first question circumstances seem to leave but little room for diversity of 
sentiment. Many have already been put away, or driven to secede : and after the 
increase, and consolidation, and exercise of power, which the last Conference presented, 
but few will entertain the forlorn hope of effecting any speedy reform in that body ; or 

D 



22 

derm themselves recompenced, by the expectation of success, which at best is remote 
and uncertain, for the anxieties and privations of a violent and protracted conflict. It 
may, therefore be assumed, that the second question will be the principal subject for 
your consideration: and on that subject your candid attention is solicited to the 
followj □ g rem arks. 

The extension of the interests of religion, is the great end of the gospel ministry, 
and o( all systems of ecclesiastical polity : and that system is the best, and the most 
worthy of adoption, which is best adapted to promote personal holiness, and to enlarge 
the kingdom of Christ. In the establishment of a system, however, adapted to human 
beings, whether in civil or religious society, some respect must be had to their relishes 
and previous habits, as well as to their absolute wants; since, by combining the offer 
of benefits, with circumstances repugnant to feelings and habits, an unwillingness 
may be produced, even to listen to the offer of them. Such being the case, the great 
problem to be solved, as the foundation of ail your arrangements, is this — "What 
system is best calculated to meet the wishes and supply the wants of our constituents; 
and most extensively to promote the interests of religion in the world around us?" — 
To confine our views within narrower limits than these, or to suffer any considerations 
to induce you to compromise this object for the sake of any other, will be a betrayal 
of the most important trust, and a grevious offence against both God and man. 

Now the assumption is probably correct, that both you and your constituents 
generally prefer not only the doctrines and religious ordinances, but also the discipline 
and itinerant ministry of Methodism; as being best adapted to that diversity of 
intellectual character and of spiritual wants, which both the church and the world 
present, as well as falling in most fully with Methodistic habits, and the tastes they 
have generated. Experience and observation have surely demonstrated to you, what 
the mere theorist must have observed, whose views have extended to all the circum- 
stances of the case, that the varied ordinances, and itinerant ministry of Methodism, 
by their suitableness to the diversities actually existing among men in taste and 
capabilities, both natural and acquired ; and by pressing into the best of causes that 
curiosity, which, for wise and beneficent purposes, is made a part of our intellectual 
constitution, is calculated to produce a far greater amount of good, on the whole, than 
a settled ministry, however high in piety or talents. Had you, therefore, to establish 
a system, irrespective of the habits and feelings produced by the usages of Methodism, 
your duty would be plain : but in connexion with them, it becomes far more so : nor 
can you, under such circumstances, do otherwise than preserve entire, your ministry, 
and ordinances, and discipline, without sacrificing the great cause you are associated 
to promote. From these you have received nothing but good ; and the amount of 
good you have seen them instrumental in accomplishing, has often been to you subject 
of holy joy and triumph. It is only a despotic government of which you complain: 
and of this, you, and myriads more, have grievous cause of complaint. This is the 
plague-spot of Methodism. This has impressed upon it an image, as repugnant to 
every British, as to every Christian feeling — led to acts which outrage every principle 
of equity, and some of which have covered the faces of its best friends with shame — 
lessened its usefulness to an unknown extent — and caused the enemies of God, and 
of his truth, to blaspheme. But you may separate the precious from the vile ; and 
while retaining in their highest perfection and efficiency, all those branches of the 
Methodistic economy, the results of which, in the salvation of your own souls, and of 
multitudes of your fellows, have so often gladdened your hearts, you may exchange its 
oligarchy, for a government, which, in excellence, deserves to be ranked with the most 
excellent parts of the Wesleyan economy. 

Such a government already exists : and in the system of the Methodist New 
Connexion, all those religions ordinances and means, to which, as instruments, 
Methodism is indebted for its success, are associated with a code of laws, which, in 
clearness and fulness are not surpassed, if equalled, by any religious denomination in 
these kingdoms; and with a form of government, requiring only to be known in order 
to its being esteemed, by every true lover of liberty ; and which has received the 
approbation of men, eminent in wisdom and piety, among almost all classes of pro- 
fessing Christians. To enable you to form a correct judgment, a copy of the Rules is 
put into your hands with this address; together with a small tract on the principles 
and form of government adopted. 

For the information of some of you, it may be necessary to state, that irrespective 
of Ireland, this religious community has in Great Britain 17(3 Chapels; 228 Societies ; 



23 

57 Circuit, and 517 Local Preachers; and 14,383 Members. In addition to a fund 
from which the children of Preachers, while in active service, are supported, it has a 
Beneficent fund, for the support of supernumerary and superannuated Preachers, 
their widows, and orphan children; in which there is now the sum of £3,335 14s. 3d. : 
and it has an establishment for the publication of Magazines, Hymn Books, &c, with 
a clear capital of upwards of £2,000 ; and which during the past year, produced in 
profits £236 2s. Id., applicable to the increase of its capital, and the support of the 
Benevolent Institutions of the Connexion. 

This community too, having, under the guiding Providence and grace of God, risen 
superior to the weakness of its infant state, and to the difficulties that surrounded it 
at its commencement, and for some time impeded its progress, has of late been 
favoured with signal tokens of divine approval : so much so, that, notwithstanding 
what some of you may have heard of its want of prosperity, its increase in Britain, 
on an average of the last ten years, has been about one-third more than that of the 
Wesleyans, in proportion to the respective numbers of each. And, at the present 
moment, 16 New Chapels are in course of erection, or partially contracted for, in 
London, Liverpool, Manchester, Halifax, Newcastle, &c. ; while peace and prosperity 
almost universally prevail. The Missionary Report for the present year, gives, in 
the following passage, only a just portraiture of the present state of the Connexion: 

" During a few years past, the Head of the Church has been graciously pleased to 
water many of our little hills of Zion with the plenteous dew of heavenly grace ; 
making the wilderness and the solitary places glad, and causing the desert to bud and 
blossom as the rose. With increasing intelligence and wealth, a spirit of Christian 
zeal has been awakened, more pure in its character, and more general in its influence ; 
warming hearts which had long been comparatively cold ; rousing to action, powers 
which had long lain dormant ; giving rapid extension to churches, which, during the 
lapse of years, had remained either stationary, or in a declining state; and clothing 
spots, which before presented the coldness and barrenness of winter, in all the fresh- 
ness and beauty of the spring. The more perfect, developement, too, of the liberal 
principles of government, by which the Connexion is so honourably distinguished, the 
natural result of the application of those principles to practice on a more extended 
scale, and of close and well-directed observation; and the fuller maturity of the 
various institutions of the Connexion, have dispelled the fears, and increased the con- 
fidence of its friends ; while the progress of public opinion, and the more just and 
general appreciation of the value of true liberty, as distinguished from irresponsible 
power on the one side, and lawless anarchy on the other, justify the happiest anticipa- 
tions with respect to the future ; not only gilding it with the beams of hope, but 
throwing upon it the more perfect light of certainty." 

On the assumption, then, that you wish to retain all the excellencies of that system, 
the widely-extended benefits of which you. have seen and participated, but to be freed 
from its despotic power, you may see in the Methodist New Connexion all your wishes 
anticipated, and your wants provided for. Here are plans of operation well tried, and 
matured, — stable institutions, — the doctrines, ordinances, discipline, and ministiy of 
Wesleyan Methodism — and these in connexion with all the liberty you can desire. 

Imagine not that by uniting with such a community, your own usefulness or honour 
will either be lost or diminished. So far from it, identified with the body, the success 
of that body will be the success of every member of it ; its honour will be your 
honour ; and, as you will share in its labours, to its rewards you will be justly entitled. 
Which, then, is best, to unite with a community, that, having tried its plans and 
surmounted its chief difficulties, has so far risen, as to be denominated by the highest 
Methodistic authority, " that now respectable body," and is at present rapidly rising — 
a community that presents before you every possible opportunity of promoting the 
glory of God and the salvation of souls — and the usefulness, the privileges, and the 
honours of which you may fully share, — or to attempt the establishment of something 
new ; not merely with the certainty of being comparatively little among the tribes of 
Israel, but with the probability of ultimately finding your hopes disappointed, and 
your efforts rendered abortive ; and your littleness or failure employed as an addi- 
tional argument to prove the folly of secessions, and as another prop to support 
spiritual usurpation. 

By an association, too, with such a community, you will most effectually serve the 
cause of public religious liberty. By bringing an accession of numbers, and strength, 
and influence, to a body already more dreaded than any other, by the enemies of 



24 

freedom among Methodists, you will assist in raising it to that elevation, and in 
giving it that attitude, which will command increased public attention and respect; 
augment its power of rapid extension; give an additional impulse to public feeling; 
destroy that monopoly of honour, to which your late masters aspire, and which is the 
chief support of their power; and thus, most effectually, and most speedily oblige 
them, first to relax, and then to relinquish, their unjust authority. The step thus 
urged on your attention, has already been taken by the seceders from the Wesley ans 
and by some of the Independent Methodists, in the north of England. These, together 
with the Rev. J. Forsyth, acting on the principle, that UNION IS STRENGTH, 
and being wishful to serve the great cause of religious liberty rather than to weaken it 
by unnecessarily multiplying divisions among its friends, have united, to the amount 
of at least nine hundred, with the Methodist New Connexion; and are now, jointly 
with the members of that community, giving an impulse to the public mind, and a 
prominence to liberal views, which cannot but gladden the heart of every enlightened 
lover of his country and his kind. 

The same opportunity is before you ; the same aid is asked at your hands ; and 
again are you reminded, that for your improvement or abuse of such an opportunity, 
you are amenable to the tribunal of the religious public, and of the Judge of the 
whole earth. The occasion and object of your present meeting may. well awaken 
feelings of holy jealousy. A spirit of enquiry has been excited, partly, perhaps, by 
your instrumentality, among a people often, and too justly blamed, for slavish adher- 
ence to their religious guides. The hand of authority having been employed to crush 
men whom they had been accustomed to venerate, and in whom they had seen nothing 
but piety and kindness — the ear of the oppressors having been deaf to the language of 
remonstrance and complaint — and their voices having been raised in thundering 
anathemas against the opposers of their aggressions — the men who read not, have been 
made to see ; they who reasoned not, have, in spite of themselves, been forced to feel ; 
and the conviction has flashed upon them, that fruits so corrupt must be produced by 
a corrupt tree ; or that, however good the original stock might have been, a scion has 
been grafted upon it, alien from its nature, and to which the knife of excision ought 
to be applied. A great and mighty movement, therefore, has been produced ; and 
principally to you is confided the task of giving to it a proper direction. You 
sustain the awful character of arbiters, in a cause involving the most momentous in- 
terests; and on your decision nothing less will depend, than the progress or retrogra- 
dation of liberty among the Wesleyans ; the prosperity or depression, the value or 
worthlessness of the interests that may be established ; and the spiritual condition of 
thousands yet unborn. 

In laying these things thus plainly before you, there is not the most distant wish 
to dictate, or to prejudge. The man who claims liberty to choose for himself, is bound 
to concede the same liberty to others ; nor with the most perfect exercise of that 
liberty is there any desire to interfere. But when facts are believed to be important 
— when dangers are seen to threaten — and when rules of duty are likely to be over- 
looked, it is imperative to point them out. Beyond these limits, the writer of this 
address has no wish; and in attempting this work, he has only imperfectly performed 
a duty equally owing to the God of truth and love — to you and your constituents — 
to that religious body with which he deems it his honour to be associated — and to the 
great cause of religious liberty. 

T. ALLIN. 

Broom-Lodge, Terrace, Sheffield, Sept. 23d, 1834. 



LETTER III. 

Rev. Sir, — I scarcely need inform you that your professed defence is not 
likely to satisfy any persons of the propriety or rectitude of your conduct, 
except such as were previously resolved that nothing should dissatisfy 
them. We are to receive it, however, as the best defence you can make ; 
and, as you have no time for controversy, it is to be, apparently, the only 
one. This information somewhat surprises me. You found time to in- 
troduce the " controversy" into your pulpits ; which, by-the bye, are the 
most unfit places for it ; and in the true character of a hero of your 
grade, you will find time for it there again, as well as in your private and 
social circles, and leave me and others to " whine about personalities," &c, 
as we please : but you will not submit your cause to the tribunal of the 
public. Let me assure you, then, that you shall suffer judgment to go by 
default ; for in case of similar transgressions, before that tribunal you 
shall again be arrainged. As I have announced for the present letter, an 
important general subject, I shall now only observe, in reference to your 
" Reply," that " misrepresentation,'' not" exposed," but exemplified, would 
have been its most characteristic title. Some of the charges preferred 
against you are conveniently passed over in silence ; and others, though 
unintentionally confirmed, are not acknowledged ; some are denied, but 
not disproved ; while others, as well as my motives, and conduct, and 
some parts of my first letter, are grossly, not to say wilfully, misrepre- 
sented : conjecture is substituted for facts, and evasion and opprobious 
epithets for reasoning. If these, Sir, are among " the tactics of contro- 
versy'' of which you speak, you understand them thoroughly ; and to all 
the honour they can confer, you are fully entitled. Strongly tempted as 
I am to confirm these statements by an analysis of your "reply," yet, for 
the present I must proclaim a truce to these personalities. The public 
justly expect proof that I have not miscalled your system of government, 
or misrepresented its character. That proof it therefore becomes my duty 
to supply. This I also do the more readily, from a belief that its arbi- 
trary character and deeply injurious effects, are not known by the public, 
nor yet sufficiently so by yourselves. Your associations and interests, 
and consequent prejudices, prevent you from seeing these in all their 
length and breadth : and if I can but partially succeed in bringing them 
out of the false glory which your imaginations throw around them, and in 
presenting them before you as they are seen by other eyes, I shall have 
done something in preparing both you and the public for their abandon- 
ment. Fully am I aware, Sir, that this part of my work will lead you and 
your fellow-calumniators to represeut me as " the enemy of Methodism :" 
and I unhesitatingly acknowledge, that had Methodism no other excel- 
lency of which to boast, than its government, its avowed and uncompro- 
mising enemy I would be. But you know as well as I do, that it has 
excellencies of a far higher order. The fulness and freeness of the salva- 
tion which it offers to the whole human race — the simplicity and variety 



26 

of the means it employs for the spiritual instruction of its members, and 
for their advancement in holiness — the adaptation of its means to exercise 
and improve the talents of all classes of its community, and to fit them 
for the various departments of usefulness — and the inducements it holds 
out to all, to employ their talents and improve their opportunities, in ex- 
tending the knowledge of divine truth, and in promoting the salvation of 
their fellows, — these are the glories of Methodism : they are the vital 
functions of the body ; and to all who understand them, they explain the 
secret of its success. And, Sir, in ardour of attachment co any or all of 
these, I will not yield to you, or to any of those who maybe prevailed 
upon to join you in the senseless cry, that lam " an enemy to Methodism.'' 
These form the simple and powerful, though, to a superficial observer, the 
apparently weak and complex machinery, by which, under God, it has 
achieved its wonders — raising myriads from the abyss of ignorance, and 
vice, and misery, to knowledge, and holiness, and happiness. The anti- 
scriptural and irresponsible power claimed and exercised by the circuit 
preachers among you, called by you, Methodism, and the removal of 
which you would represent as the destruction of every thing truly valuable, 
instead of being even essential to Methodism, is in fact an incubus, 
whose weight represses its powers, prevents their complete developement, 
and diminishes their active energy ; while its unsightly form alarms the 
timid, and keeps back that resistance, before which it would soon dis- 
appear. The immense amount of good of which Methodism so justly 
boasts, has been effected, not by this monster, but by other means in 
spite of it ; and had those means but been connected with a liberal govern- 
ment, that good might have been augmented to an extent of which 
neither you nor I can form a conception. The worst enemies of Metho- 
dism are those who would plead for crying abuses under names which a 
thousand benefits and associations have endeared ; and who, under the 
cloke of zeal for what deserves the highest praise, would artfully conceal 
and defend those evils which merit entire and instant reprobation. It is 
as the friend of Methodism that I expose these evils — place them before 
you and your people — and, if you will not give them up, call upon your 
people to abandon them. Most earnestly do I wish that I could effect 
the former of these objects ; as I should account it the greatest good I 
could confer on my species ; and joyfully, in such a work, would I sustain 
a yet heavier load of that reproach, which, in such abundance, you have 
already tried to heap upon me. I call upon you, then, as a professed 
lover of truth, and justice, and liberty, steadily to view this part of your 
system ; not in the light which names, or early associations, or interest, 
or honour may furnish ; but in the light supplied by the New Testament, 
and the dictates of impartial reason. 

The end of government, ecclesiastical as well as civil, is the preserva- 
tion of the order and happiness of society, by securing the rights of all those 
classes of which it is composed, while it leaves to each all the liberty com- 
patible with the perfect possession and enjoyment of those rights. When, 
therefore, we are tcld that forms of government are of trifling importance ; 
and that that government is best, which is best administered ; either a 
fallacy under a specious form is imposed upon us instead of truth, or a pro- 
position is stated as a general one, which is true only to a very partial ex- 



27 

tent. It may, indeed, be true, that an absolute government is best adapted 
to the first stages of society, and to the lowest degrees of knowledge and 
virtue ; as it is unquestionably best adapted to an infant or youthful 
family : but as in the family, so in society, capabilities give rights ; and 
when forms of government invade these rights, and forbid their exercise, 
they become, as forms, unjust, and the parties injured by them are entitled 
to call for their removal. There are likewise great principles, which all 
systems of government, but more especially ecclesiastical systems, ought 
invariably to recognise and embody : principles which are highly impor- 
tant, on account both of the extent of their application and their direct 
influence on the liberty and happiness of men ; and which, though capable 
of various modifications in practice, yet never can be extensively merged, 
without ultimate injury to all classes of the community. In the govern- 
ment of Wesleyan Methodism, and the effects produced by it, we shall 
find abundant illustrations of the truth of these remarks. 

The distinguishing and objectionable characteristic of your ecclesiastical 
polity, is the extensive, not to say enormous power vested by it in the 
hands of a particular order of men, — viz. the circuit preachers : to which 
order you belong. In Conference, w T hich is your highest, or, properly 
speaking, your only legislative assembly, you claim to sit and act alone. 
There you are self-elected, your people having no voice in your appoint- 
ment ; and there you are sole and exclusive legislators. This character 
no one is permitted to share with you. No member, however prudent or 
pious — no leader, local preacher, or other officer, however talented, or 
useful — must be admitted as the representative of any class of your people. 
The people may indeed petition ; but, as we shall see, even this right is 
fettered with restrictions unfavourable to its free exercise ; or when exer- 
cised in a way unfavourable to the views of the rulers in Israel, is met with 
neglect or rebuke. Without adverting to numerous complaints of neglect, 
and which appear to be too-well founded, I will furnish one example of 
the way in which you can meet petitioners with rebuke. The proceedings 
of your official authorities at Leeds, by which a thousand members were 
sacrificed to arbitrary power, and which, I hope to be able to notice, having 
awakened the indignation, as well as the astonishment of many of the best 
friends of Methodism, the Quarterly Meeting of the Rochdale Circuit ad- 
dressed your Conference. The parties to that address profess, with the 
most evident sincerity, their " love to the preachers" — their "ardent at- 
tachment to pure Wesleyan Methodism" — their love of peace— and their 
abhorrence of dissensions and schism : they deny any connexion with the 
separatists at Leeds, and do not intend to vindicate their conduct ; but 
they plainly, yet in temperate and most respectful language point out in- 
stances in which the laws of the connexion had been violated, and former 
liberties endangered or curtailed : and they pray, that " as there is an evi- 
dent defect in some of our rules, and an ambiguity in the expression of 
others, — with all deference and respect — we earnestly request the Con- 
ference to take these matters into their most serious consideration ; — to 
allow the rules in question to be so expressed as to prevent the possibility 
of their being misunderstood, allowing a due regard to the rights and pri- 
vileges of the various orders of officers amongst us ; — to rescind the 
objectionable parts of the resolutions of last Conference, and adopt some 



28 

of a more scriptural and conciliatory character." They also request, that 
any " wrong opinions" entertained by them on these subjects might be 
pointed out, and promise on conviction, candidly to acknowledge them. 
Instead, however, of such an answer as they were entitled to expect, they 
were informed, that Conference would " continue" to maintain the rules 
which they had prayed might be explained and amended ; and that their 
objections had been " distinctly brought forward and amply refuted" in 
Conference itself; and then they are thus rebuked : — " The present 
Conference directs us to express its regret that you should have occupied 
the time of your Quarterly Meeting, in framing a memorial on subjects so 
foreign from its proper business ; and they solemnly admonish you, that 
the indulgence of such a spirit as this memorial manifests, would be found 
altogether incompatible with genuine spiritual prosperity amongst you, and 
the true furtherance of the gospel of Christ." From this instance it is 
easy to ascertain the limits within which the right of petition is of any 
worth among you, or can be exercised with impunity. — You indeed allow r , 
'• that if at any time the Conference see it necessary to make any new 
rule for the societies at large, and such rule should be objected to at the first 
Quarterly Meeting in any given circuit ; and if the major part of that 
meeting, in conjunction with the preachers, be of opinion that the enforcing 
of such rule in that circuit will be injurious to the prosperity of that cir- 
cuit ; it shall not be enforced in opposition to the judgment of such Quar- 
terly Meeting before the second Conference. But if the rule be confirmed 
by the second Conference, it shall be binding to the whole connexion. 
Nevertheless, the Quarterly Meetings rejecting a new rule, shall not, by 
publications, public meetings, or otherwise, make that rule a cause of con- 
tention ; but shall strive, by every means, to preserve the peace of the 
connexion."* This permissive regulation, as it is easy to see, is calcu- 
lated only to delude by a shew of liberality, while no real liberty is in fact 
possessed. Any expression of disapprobation is here limited, first as to 
time : viz., the September Quarterly Meeting ; when your Minutes of 
Conference, as is occasionally the case, may not have been in the hands 
of parties affected by the resolutions, many days before the holding of 
the Quarterly Meeting, and thus an objectionable enactment may not 
have been observed ; — or should some have perceived its injurious bearing, 
there is not time to form mature views and plans, and to prepare effectual 
opposition. Then the dissatisfaction with any law must be limited, se- 
condly, in extent : for such law is not to be made " a cause of contention," 
either by " publications, or public meetings, or otherwise." A restriction 
this, by which opposition is prevented from becoming formidable by con- 
cert ; while opponents are debarred from obtaining a correct knowledge 
of their own strength. And after all, should any majority of meetings, 
however great, oppose, there is entire libeity reserved to confirm the law at 
the ensuing Conference, after which it becomes a part of Methodism, and a 
term of communion ; and to oppose it, is to become obnoxious to the 
charge and penalties of rebellion. Your legislative authority is thus ren- 
dered exclusive and absolute : and, as you are not bound to consult any 
class of persons respecting what you shall do, so neither are you responsible 
to them for what you have done. It may indeed be said, that your au- 
' * See Dr. Warrens Digest, Yul. I. pp. 232, 233. 



29 

thority is limited by your acknowledged standard of doctrines, and by the 
deed of declaration : and to some extent it is so.* But notwithstanding 
these limitations, your legislative power can reach to many things deeply 
affecting the interests and just liberties of your people : and after late 
deviations and additions, and after the new doctrinal test set up on the 
subject of" the Eternal Sonship," it is easy to perceive that the limits are 
still extensive, within which you both may and will exercise your 
authority. 

A few of the subjects to which that authority extends, I will just enu- 
merate. It is within the prerogative of Conference to fix the salaries of 
the preachers, and the allowances for their children. This prerogative 
they exercised, when in 1814 they resolved, that " The preachers are per- 
mitted to receive the usual and regular allowances for their children, from 
their circuits, or from the contingent fund, until they attain the age of 
twenty years ; unless by marriage or otherwise, they shall at an earlier pe- 
riod become independent of their parents in point of pecuniary support." 
Conference determines the terms of membership — the qualifications and 
duties of officers — makes laws for the regulation of public worship and 
other religious ordinances, schools, &c. — and invests its own members 
with authority to execute the laws so made. It decrees at what meetings 
the business of the church shall be transacted, and what power shall 
be exercised therein by the superintendent, as its organ and instru- 
ment ; as well as what penalty shall be inflicted on the opposer of his 
authority, or on the attendant on a meeting pronounced by him "ille- 
gal.'' It invests him with the power to execute its will, and it possesses 
means to secure his obedience. Were Conference to pass a law, subject- 
ing to excommunication every officer and member who should either call 
or attend any meeting for the purpose of promoting reform either in 
church or state, or who should originate or sign any petition on such a 
subject, the parties, whoever they might be, would have no remedy ; but 
the chapels, and schools, and preachers' houses they have built, must be 
left to others, and they must seek shelter and liberty elsewhere. I do not 
intend, indeed, either to affirm or insinuate that you are sufficiently blinded 
to the signs of the times to venture on such an experiment ; though after 
what you have done, and with the leaning manifested in certain high 
quarters, I should not pronounce it impossible ; but I do intend this to 
shew, that the absolute and irresponsible power of your Conference is 
more perfect and extensive than even your own people generally suppose 
it to be : and I affirm, that any impartial judge, understanding on the one 
hand the nature and claims of true liberty, and on the other hand the consti- 
tution and power of your Conference, must pronounce the two to be incom- 
patible ; and must view the latter as a spiritual usurpation, dangerous both 
to the civil and ecclesiastical rights of the community. 

* On tliis deed, intended by Mr. Wesley to legalize the Conference, it has been 
with too much truth remarked, that " it is exclusively the preachers'; and excepting 
a few necessary regulations for the holding of Conferences, supplying the circuits, 
and providing for the demise of the Connexion, there is no security, restriction, or in 
short any thing which can be called reciprocal in favour of the people. It is in 
reality the constitution of a Methodist hierarchy, giving and maintaining power, 
independent of, and uncontrollable by the people." Apology for the Methodists of 
the New Connexion i p. 8. 

E 



30 

Wo have been told, Sir, of the liberties secured to your people by the 
" plan of pacification,'' and the " regulations" that accompanied and suc- 
ceeded it. These have been designated by some, " The bulwarks of Me- 
thodistic liberties" — " The Magna Charta of Methodism,'' &c. Hut had 
the great charter extorted from King John, conferred no higher privi- 
leges on civil society than are secured to your body by the plan of pacifi- 
cation, &c, the praises lavished upon it would neither have been bestowed 
nor deserved. Passing over for the present the circumstance, that some 
of the privileges supposed to have been secured by that plan, were not 
at all conferred, as your older preachers well know, and as your people 
at Rochdale and some other places have found out, your exclusive legis- 
lative authority remains untouched by it ; nor is any order of persons 
among you empowered either to share in that authority, or to control its 
exercise. So tenaciously have you adhered to this, that when in 1797, 
many of your circuits, and some of your most intelligent and pious mem- 
bers asked, " that the people might be represented in Conference by dele- 
gates, chosen by, and from amongst the people, — and when the delegates 
assembled in Leeds, amongst whom were men of the highest moral and 
religious worth, prayed " that the representatives of the people should 
assemble in a separate room during the sitting of Conference ; and that 
no new law should be enacted affecting the people, without their sanction," 
the propositions, based as they were on the plainest principles of right 
and expediency, and harmonizing, as they did, with every British feeling, 
and, as we shall see, with the principles of the New Testament, were 
rejected ; and the Conference resolved, " That they cannot admit any 
but regular travelling preachers into their body, either in the Conference 
or District Meetings, and preserve the system of Methodism entire, par- 
ticularly the itinerant plan, which they are determined to support."* 
And notwithstanding the experience of the New Connexion, and the 
Primitive Methodists, has demonstrated the fallacy of the principal reason 
assigned for the rejection of lay-representatives, yet, as though that was 
the ostensible, and not the real ground of rejection, your power since that 
period has been increased, and the liberties of your people have been 
narrowed. Now, Sir, a legislative body self-elected, and exclusive, and 
irresponsible, I denominate an oligarchy, and a despotism, whether it be 
found in civil or religious society ; and if there is any proper application 
of those terms, they cannot, in my judgment, be more correctly applied. 
In order to prevent all approaches on the part of your people to a 
citadel which you are determined to occupy alone, and, if we are to 
judge from late declarations, never to surrender, unless through famine, 
you inform your people, that they are "not to mend your rules, but to 
keep them for conscience' sake ;"f and you enact, " Let no man, nor 
number of men in our Connexion, on any account or occasion, circulate 
letters, call meetings, do, or attempt to do, anything new till it has been 
first approved by Conference.".): A specimen of legislation this, which 
mocks all the attempts made by Castlereagh to destroy the freedom of 
discussion, and roll back the tide of reform. First, the hands of your mem- 
bers are bound ; — letters are not to be written and circulated. Secondly, 

* Dr. Warren's Digest, Vol. I. p. !()<>. + Dr. Warren's Digest, Vol. I. p. 138. 

t Large Minutes, 1794, p. 347. 



31 

silence is enjoined; — they are not to call meetings, and of course, not to 
speak at them : and then, though they cannot be deprived of active 
powers, the use of them is prohibited ; — they are not to do, or to attempt 
to do anything new, until it be first approved by Conference. So then, 
though with the Rochdale local preachers and leaders, they may feel 
assured that some laws are indefinite — others are defective — and others 
are wrong — yet they are neither to write, nor speak, nor in any other 
way " to do, or attempt to do" anything to get the obscurity removed, 
or the imperfection supplied, or the wrong rectified, lest they should be 
told in the language of the reply to the application from Rochdale, that 
they are occupying their time on subjects " foreign from their proper 
business," and indulging a spirit "altogether incompatible with genuine 
spiritual prosperity ;" or lest they should be made to feel the power 
which the superintendent in such cases possesses of expelling them. Not 
only is your authority not to be touched, but even the attempt to touch 
it is a misdemeanor or a crime, and exposes to censure or excommunica- 
tion. Such a law disgraces not the statute-book of any community in 
Christendom, except yours ; and were any member of the British senate 
to propose an enactment even approaching to it, he would be denounced 
as a lunatic or an idiot, or would be suspected of some secret design to 
produce instant and universal rebellion. This law alone, Sir, by which 
your people are bound, and gagged, and laid prostrate at your feet, and 
forbidden even to attempt to write, or speak, or move, lest your quiet 
should be disturbed, and your authority endangered, would of itself 
justify stronger language than I have used, or shall at present use, in 
reference either to you, or } r our people, or your government. 

The following extracts from an account of the trial and expulsion of 
a gentleman in Manchester, whose age, and piety, and long services, 
entitled him to the utmost forbearance and kindness, will strikingly 
illustrate some of your laws, and the spirit in which they are adminis- 
tered. The account was published by the gentleman himself, Mr. 
Greenhalgh, in the Manchester Times of the 6th inst., and has not, so 
far as I know, been disputed. Mr. G. observes, it "has been read to 
several of the leaders who were present on the memorable occasion, and 
who vouch for its correctness." 

" On Wednesday evening, November 12, in the Stewards' room connected with 
Grosvenor-street Chapel, in the South Manchester Circuit, the trial took place. The 
Rev. J. Anderson commenced the proceedings by saying, ' We are called together 
this evening on business of importance. I have, in discharge of my duty to God and 
to Methodism, required the brethren Greenhalgh, Hughes and Korsfield, to appear 
before us this evening, to answer certain charges with which I have furnished them. 
I will not appeal to your hearts or to your feelings, but to your reason; for I wish 
you to judge calmly and dispassionately. I wish also to say that I am forced to adopt 
this course. I am responsible to God for the faithful discharge of my official duties; 
and in the steps I shall take, I shall look to you for support. I have one or two pre- 
fatory remarks to make, to save interference afterwards. I cannot allow any brethren 
to cast reflections on my conduct, or in any way to criminate me. If I have broken 
any law I am responsible to another tribunal, and you have your redress; but I can- 
not suffer any reflections upon my proceedings here ; neither can I allow the propriety 
or impropriety of establislhiig the Theological Institution to be here discussed : with 
that we have nothing to do, and I cannot allow remarks relative to that subject. Indeed 
we are not met for conversation or discussion, but to prove or disprove certain charges. 
The charges, then, which it is my painful duty to prefer against brother Greenhalgh 
are the following : — 



32 

u 1 That you have written and published a pamphlet entitled, An Address to the 
Members and Friends of the Weslejan Methodist Missionary Society, relative to the 
Theological Institution, by a Wesleyan Methodist Local Preacher, — the principal 
object of which is to induce the persons therein addressed to suspend their Missionary 
efforts and liberalities, in order to compel the immediate abandonment of the said 
Theological Institution.* 

' 2. That the said pamphlet contains statements and reflections injurious to the 
character and usefulness of divers Wesleyan ministers and other persons therein 
alluded to. 

' 3. That at an illegal meeting held in David-street school room, in the first Man- 
chester Circuit on Monday evening last, you advocated, and by your signaturo 
sanctioned, certain resolutions there proposed and adopted, which were and are anti- 
Methodistical, and which tend to disturb the peace and unity of the Wesleyan 
Societies.' 

" Mr. Anderson then said, — Is this a correct copy, Brother G. 1 — It is, Sir, was my 
reply. — Will you answer them one by one, or shall I go through the whole? — Just 
as you please, was my answer. — I refer the case to you, said he. Well then, said I, 
in order to save time, you had better go through the whole of the charges. — Mr. 
Anderson then read the first charge, and inquired, ' Did you write and publish this 
pamphlet?' I did, Sir. — Then, said he to Brother Bedford, you may tell that person 
who was in waiting to prove this, to go. — Why really, Sir, said I, did you suppose I 
should deny this fact. I frankly confessed to you and Mr. Lusher, on Friday last, 
that I was the author, and it seems as though you doubted my frankness and honesty, 
in having a witness at hand. — He replied, its merely out of form. Well then, he 
continued, that being admitted, it follows as a matter of course, that whatever it 
contains is yours, and I now fix on certain passages to prove that Brother Greenhalgh 
has attempted to persuade the missionary collectors, subscribers, &c, to suspend their 
efforts and liberalities until the Theological Institution be abandoned, and that he 
has made statements and reflections injurious to the character and usefulness of 
certain Wesleyan ministers and others. Then turning to certain passages, he read, 
expounded, and applied, according to his own views. Then, said he, I have to shew 
that this tiact and these passages are anti-Methodistical — I protested against such a 
step as illegal and disorderly, as I was not in these two counts in my indictment 
charged with any thing un-Methodistic. I said, What you are about to prove is not 
found in my first and second charges. The un-Methodistic character of my pamphlet 
is not once named, and I protest against the course you are pursuing as illegal. — 
With this objection he appeared hampered for a moment, and then proceeded : — Thtf 
charges I have read, and if I prove your conduct as specified therein un-Methodistb 
cal, that is my point, and I will not be interrupted — you have the right to defend 

* The importance of literary arid intellectual acquirements to the Christian ministry, especially 
in the present state of society, must be seen by most persons acquainted with the nature and ad. 
vantages of those acquirements, and the varied duties lightly devohing up.m ministers of the 
Gospel. And it ought to he universally known, that the objections on the part of Dr. Warren, 
and the principal persons acting with him, are not so much against the employment of means to 
secure to pious and promising young men increased capabilities of usefulness, as against a 
separate establishment which' should be used hy a dominant party to increase its own power, by 
admitting and recommending only such ministers and missionaries as might be moulded accord- 
ing to its views and imbued with its spirit, and who would therefore assist in the more entire 
subversion of the liberties of the community. Til! Dr. Warren saw, or thought he saw this to be 
the design, he voted for the institution, and even for the appointment of Dr. Bunting as its presi- 
dent. But when that conviction flashed upon his mind, then, and not till then, did he laudably 
stand forward as its oppos' r. Convinced, too, alter what he had seen, that there was no alter- 
native between an institution which should he thus subservient to party purposes, and no institu- 
tion at all, he set himself to shew that it was not essential to the prosp. rity of the bo.ly ; and that 
enme at least, or the proposed advantages, might be secured without it. Me may in some 
particulars have been incorrect in his views, or illogical in his reasonings, but that his principles 
and general views are right, every man of enlightened and libeial mind will allow. Such are the 
views embodied in the address by Mr G., and to the institution vnder this character, be applied the 
ter.iio set forth by Mr. Anderson in his support of the indictment; •• Bold and reckless,'' &c. He 
therefore states, " We protest against it as a serious innovation on W esleyan Methodism ; tending 
entirely to •nbverl its original constitution and design, and investing its officers, and especially 
its president, the Rev.Jabez Bunting, with an amount of power and authority, dangerous to the 
peace and prosperity of the connexion. 'I liese and such like, are our reasons for opposition to 
this held and reckless measure; a measure which we believe, has been concocted and carried rot 
party purposes; and which, unless we conscientions'y and fearlessly do our duty, as Christians 
nod Method**!*, will ruin a system to which we are sacredly attached, und which we were fondly 
hoping, and ardently praying, would be transmitted in its native simplicity, and majest>, and 
power, lo our children and children's children, until all flesh shall see the salvation oi God." 



33 

yourself afterwards, and you shall have all fairness. Well, then, I prove your con. 
duct to be un-Methodistic by referring to page 326, in Large Minutes for 1794, 
5 reg. : " To prevent as much as possible, the progress of strife and debate, and 
consequent divisions in our societies, no pamphlet or printed letter shall be circulated 
among us without the author's name and the postage or carnage paid." I prove it 
again by referring to page 347, question and answer 29. Question.—' What can be 
done to prevent unruly or unthinking men from disturbing our people ? Answer — 
Let no man, nor number of men in our Connexion, on any account or occasion circu- 
late letters, call meetings, do or attempt to do any thing new till it has been first 
approved by Conference.' Now, I infer from comparing Brother Greenhalgh's 
pamphlet with these regulations, he has been guilty of a gross dereliction of duty. 
Then appealing with his customary warmth to the brethren present he said, if he 
were aggrieved he should have applied to the Local Missionary Committees, or have 
waited until Conference, and memorialized. But here he takes advantage of the 
excited state of society, and publishes a pamphlet which tends to produce strife and 
division. Look at his language — ' Daring and unconstitutional' — ' bold and reckless' 
— ' daring innovation' — ' proud Goliah' — ' monster', &c. Such language tends to 
excite the feelings and create the opposition of our societies. Besides, here is a gross 
misrepresentation. The Institution he calls a College — Ave denounce the name — and 
we might, knowing Brother Greenhalgh's good taste and discernment, expect better 
things. Then there is this strong expression ;— ' they see the difficulty themselves, 
but attempt to hide it from you lest you should come to the knowledge of the truth 
and be saved from their dissimulation.'' Here Brother Cottom rose and said he 
wished to speak a word or two. ' What about ?,' said Mr. Anderson. I wish to prove 
from the last number of our Magazine, that this charge of dissimulation is correct — I 
shall not hear you, said Mr. Anderson. I will hear no allegations against these 
men. — But I insist upon speaking as a member of this meeting. I will not allow 
you. — Then I say the conduct of those men is not distinguished by Christian upright- 
ness and integrity, but that they are guilty of dissimulation. Now mind, vociferated 
Mr. Anderson, I give you notice, Brother Cottom, that you stand your trial next 
Wednesday evening. * * * He then sat down, having only gone through two 
charges, and desired me to reply, which I did as follows : — Sir, I admit my pamphlet 
was without name, but I was from the beginning known to be its author. I frankly 
confessed to every inquirer, and to yourself among others that I had written and 
published it and therefore the design of that regulation was not attempted to be 
defeated — the letter of the law only has been infringed — (Query, Does it not bear 
my official name) — but the intention and spirit of it have been observed. Then, 
again, the pamphlet, instead of creating strife and debate, had a tendency to abate it. 
You had set on foot the Institution un-Methodistically, and it is rending the Con- 
nexion in pieces.- — I cannot allow that, said Mr. Anderson. — I replied, Sir, my de- 
fence is closely connected with it. You have joined the Missionary cause and the 
College, and how can I defend my conduct towards the former, without referring to 
the latter? Well, go on, go on, said he.— I say then, you, Sir, and the Conference, 
have created strife and division by breaking the laws of Methodism, the solemn com- 
pact entered into between preachers and people. And you, Sir, would not allow a 
constitutional expression of our sentiments, and we had no alternative left, but to 
appeal through the press to the Methodist public. I am not chargeable with the 
design to create strife and division : your conduct originated the pamphlet, and all its 
consequences are fairly chargeable on you. * * I am not an unruly man; I have 
been in this society twenty-five years, have occupied most of that time in important 
offices, and I can appeal to the church and to the world, whether there be a blot upon 
my character ; whether I have disgraced at any time my religious profession, or 
brought a disgrace upon the society from which you are about to expel me. No, 
thank God ! I have maintained my integrity, and can say to my worst enemies, 
1 Which of you convinceth me of sin?' I am not an unruly man, Sir; I am a peace- 
keeper and a peace-maker, but not a peace-breaker. Neither, Sir, — and I am obliged 
to say this, am I an unthinking man. Your frequent claims upon my services are 
the best proof of my assertion. * * * Mr. Anderson said, ' Brethren, you perceive 
Brother Greenhalgh has failed to defend himself; he has attempted a defence, but it 
is fruitless ; and now those who are of opinion Brother Greenhalgh has published this 
pamphlet, and that he has tried to persuade missionary friends and others to suspend 
their efforts and liberalities until the institution be abandoned, and that he has made 



34 

statements and reflections injurious to the character and usefulness of certain Wes- 
leyan ministers and others : those who think these charges are proved, signify the same 
by a shew of hands :" — seven hands were held up and twenty were neuter. 

" There is, said Mr. Anderson, another charge against Brother Greenhalgh : --- * You 
are charged with attending an illegal meeting, and advocating, and by your signature 
sanctioning certain resolutions and propositions there adopted.' He then read the pro- 
positions and resolutions which were signed on Friday evening, the 7th Inst., by 
upwards of one hundred office-bearers in the First Manchester Circuit. After reading 
and dAvelling largely on these, lie went into some Minutes of Conference, with which 
not one in a hundred are acquainted, to prove the origin, the constitution, and the 
objects of this meeting to be unconstitutional. His plan appeared to be, first, to prove 
that there was no superintendent present: and here he contended Dr. "\Yairen was not 
recognized as the superintendent of the First Manchester Circuit; and secondly, if he 
were, still we had no light there as the meeting was not held in our circuit ; and thirdly, 
if the meeting were legal its doings were not, as a pledge was given to propositions and 
sentiments anti-Methodistieal; and in my case an advocacy of such unconstitutional 
measures had been attempted, and I reported myself as the representative of many in 
our circuit. 

" I replied, Sir, it is useless to say much, as -my fate is already decided. I will say 
however, first, that Dr. Wan-en is the proper superintendent of the Manchester First 
Circuit, and that the meeting, therefore, was constitutional ; and secondly, that the 
meeting was called by that circuit, and we who attended, from other circuits are not 
responsible for its doings --- we were admitted to that meeting by the courtesies of our 
Christian brethren : and thirdly, that the pledge we gave was not to measures that were 
un-Methodistical, but, as far as I can judge, perfectly congenial with the constitution 
and usages of Methodism. I then read the resolutions, and shewed their agreement 
with Methodist law and usage, and defended the course I had adopted. 

" Mr. Anderson said, Brethren, you have heard Mr. Greenhalgh's defence, which 
must be any thing but satisfactory to your minds ; and now let those who think the 
case made out, that is, that Mr. Greenhalgh attended an illegal meeting, and there 
sanctioned its proceedings and these propositions and resolutions, signify the same by 
a show of hands. About six or seven hands were held up. Twenty-five persons were 
present at tins stage of the proceedings, one baring retired. Mr. G. Taylor alone held 
up his hand in opposition. The remainder were neutral. Then, said Mr. Anderson, 
before I proceed to the sentence, has brother Greenhalgh any thing to say ? — I rose 
and said, I wish to state distinctly and deliberately, I wish you and this meeting fully 
to understand me, and I wish it to go forth to the public, that 1 do not retract one 
word of what I have published in that pamphlet ; that I do not retrace one step I have 
taken relative to the public meeting and the resolutions and propositions there adopted ; 
and let me also say distinctly and deliberately, and let it go forth to the world, that I 
am no recanter. — Then sitting down, Mr. Anderson rose and said, What I feared has 
come to pass, and it is now my solemn and painful duty to pronounce the sentence 
which Brother Greenhalgh has brought upon himself. (Here, it is bivt just to remark 
that at the suggestion of one or two brethren, Mr. Anderson proposed to defer my sen- 
tence a week; but several others, seeing that the case was decided, urged me to reci ive 
it then, to which I assented) ; and I now, said he, as in the presence of God, to whom I am 
accountable for my conduct, pronounce in the name of the Blessed Trinity --- Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, that Brother Greenhalgh is no longer a member of the Wesleyan 
Methodist Society.' Mingled feelings of awe, regret, and indignation pervaded the 
meeting, and several brethren were affected to tears, and expressed their deep sorrow 
for my expulsion. I then rose, and being graciously supported by the presence of my 
God and ray Saviour, said, Thank God you cannot rob me of my Christ--- you can- 
not deprive me of the comforts of religion. I feel this moment as much as ever I did 
in my life, that God is mine and I am his, and although you have dissevered me from 
one section of the church of God I can join another, and these are my supports and 
consolations in this grievous trial. 

Thus, Sir, despotism immolates its victims : and having- obliged pious 
and conscientious men to leave their quiet and obscurity to oppose its 
enchroachments, it punishes their opposition as a crime, and, in the 
name of God, drives out from his churches the objects of his love ! 

But among the defences of your power, none is more exactly adapted 



35 

to its intended purpose, than the authority vested in your superintendent 
preachers, of presiding- at all meetings, and of dissolving- them by vaca- 
ting- the chair, whenever any subject is introduced which they deem 
" unmethodistical ;" or in other words, whenever a proposition is sub- 
mitted, opposed to their views, or likely to be ungrateful to the rulers of 
your Conference : after which dissolution, the meeting-, if continued, 
becomes " illeg-al," or " a rebellion meeting ;" and every person taking- 
part in its proceeding-s renders himself liable, as in the case of Mr. 
Greenhalgh, to excommunication. The laws to which I chiefly refer 
are these : — ■ 

" As the Leaders' Meeting is the proper meeting for the society, and 
the Quarterly Meeting for the circuit, we think that other formal 
meetings, in general, would be contrary to the Methodist economy, and 
very prejudicial in their consequences : But, 

" In order to be as tender as possible, consistently with what we be- 
lieve to be essential to the welfare of our societies, we allow that other 
formal meetings may be held, if they first receive the approbation of the 
superintendent, and the Leaders' or Quarterly Meeting; provided also 
that the superintendent, if he please, be present at every such meeting." 

" Let all the travelling preachers, where Sunday-schools are establish- 
ed, be members of the committees of those schools which belong to us; 
and let the superintendent preside in their meetings.'' 

" We judge that if the superintendent of a circuit, or any of his 
colleagues, be obliged to withdraw from a Quarterly Meeting during its 
sittings, the meeting will be thereby dissolved ; and we will receive no 
letters nor information from such meeting on any account." 

" All rules are equally binding on both the preachers and the people : 
and therefore any superintendent who permits a vote to be taken on the 
execution or rejection of them, shall, on proof at the ensuing Confer- 
ence, be deprived of the office of superintendent."* 

Some of these laws, Sir, have a vagueness and generality which at 
first sight seem to leave but little to apprehend from their operation ; 
but in fact these qualities better enable the hand of power to mould them 
into almost any form its purposes may require, and to render them the 
more effectual instrument of oppression. Instead of any commentary of 
mine, I will place before you some remarks by a respectable member of 
your own body, whose acquaintance with your laws and practice is ex- 
tensive, and whose attachment to Wesleyan Methodism is sincere. 

" 1 have long beheld with sorrow the disposition manifested by the 
travelling preachers, to prevent communication between the members of 
the Methodist societies, on many subjects deeply interesting to them. We 
have been warned both publicly and privately against the danger of illegal 
meetings, and gravely informed that nothing but anarchy, and injury to 
the work of God, both in the societies and in our own souls, can result 
from meetings in which no travelling preacher presides. We have been 
told that we have our regular meetings in which all matters connected 
with the society should be discussed, and that, if any real grievance 
should at any time exist, the Conference has its paternal ear ever open 
to our complaints, and is ever ready to redress the wrong ; that every 
* Dr. Warrens Digest, Vol. I. pp. 158, 231, 232, 397. 



36 

individual in the society has the right of appeal, and every circuit the 
privilege of addressing- its humble petition to that august assemblv. 

" Yet, of late, all meetings of whatsoever kind, to which a travelling- 
preacher has not been invited, or which he may have refused to attend, 
have been branded illeg-al ; and the thunders of excommunication (hap- 
pily harmless) have been hurled indiscriminately at all who have been 
bold enough to attend them, and to attempt a justification of their con- 
duct. Thus, whatever the primary meaning- of the law may be, the 
practice as exemplified in many recent cases proves, that the Conference 
preachers now assume the right to forbid any meeting- of the officers and 
friends of the society for any purpose, unless the previous sanction of 
the superintendent of the circuit shall be obtained. 

" This sanction can never be obtained unless it is well known who 
are to compose the meeting, and that the object for which it is called is 
such as the superintendent, in the plenitude of his wisdom may deem 
serviceable to the interests of Methodism, — that is, to the increase of 
the authority of Conference. The law thus understood, becomes in 
fact a direct and positive prohibition of any extraordinary meeting- 
whatever, in which the illegal conduct of the preachers in any particular 
circuit, or of the Conference, is to form the topic of discussion. 

" It is easy to foresee what effect this law thus explained must have 
on every thing- which in the exercise of ' inherent rights,' the preachers, 
or the Conference, may think proper to bring- forward. 

"But should the case be one of self-evident injustice and manifest 
breach of law, (as in the late Leeds question) and should the complaints 
of the oppressed arouse the indignation of their brethren, insomuch that 
the majority of the official members of some circuit bring forward a 
remonstrance in their quarterly meeting, then the whole art of Jesuitism 
has been employed to prevent the expression of public disapprobation. 
But if, after all, the feeling could not be restrained, and a motion has 
been proposed on the subject, then the superintendent in the exercise of 
* inherent rights,' turns round upon the meeting, and refuses to put the 
motion. 

" But should a motion for an address be carried, (as in the case of 
the London South Circuit) and should that address be presented in the 
most respectful manner, with the utmost regularity, and in the precise 
form prescribed by the Conference itself, still nothing is gained ; — the 
Conference will not read any thing which censures its own conduct, nor 
can it acknowledge the possibility of doing wrong. 

" Thus, it appears, first, that no open and free discussion on any 
matter that involves the affairs over which Conference assumes autho- 
rity, can be maintained where a travelling preacher is the president of 
the meeting ; and secondly, that no other meeting- can, according to the 
present construction of the law, be legally held. Either the Society 
must tamely submit, or run at once into open rebellion, since the Con- 
ference assumes the right to make, alter and explain the Methodist law ; 
and in neither legal nor illegal meetings can any officer of the society 
offer an argument against its decisions with impunity. Wherein these 
assumptions, and the 'inherent rights' claimed by Mr. Watson differ 
from Popery in its worst form, I am at a loss to discern." 



37 

Such, Sir, are the sentiments of one who thinks highly of Methodism, 
and wishes to think so of Methodist Preachers. But as FACTS will 
best explain the meaning- of the laws, at least as they are understood by 
those who both make and execute them, I will present you with a few 
out of a great number, which, if necessary, I can at any time supply. 
In order, likewise, to unfold a little of the Jesuitical trickery, (no other 
term justly characterizes it) to which recourse is frequently had to pre- 
serve your power, and, either by deception or terror, to keep down the 
spirit of liberty, which, notwithstanding- your fettering and gagging 
laws, will at times stir, and speak, and labour to cast off its chains, — I 
will give some of the cases in detail, with their attendant circumstances. 

" For some considerable time after the dissensions at Leeds, the friends 
in Liverpool felt disposed to rely on the wisdom and justice of the Con- 
ference ; and it was not until after the publication of their extraordinary 
minutes in 1828, that many of our friends became seriously alarmed at 
the spirit displayed by the Conference, and at their deliberate and 
uncompromising grasp at an authority totally subversive of the Metho- 
dist Constitution. They then felt it to be their duty to convey to the 
Conference their views relative to the whole of the proceedings so 
unhappily sanctioned in the minutes. 

" When the address of the London South Circuit to the Conference 
of 1828, reviewing the case in a constitutional point of view, came into 
circulation, the conviction became more general and irresistible, that 
the preachers composing the special district meeting had violated their 
own laws; had unjustly expelled individuals from society, and had other- 
wise trampled upon the hitherto acknowledged rights and privileges of 
the local authorities. Yet the following Conference, in confirming these 
acts, declared them constitutional in Methodism. The question then 
very naturally suggested itself, — What shall we do ? — Shall we con- 
tinue to sit still, and for the sake of peace, or through the fear of causing 
strife and debate, pass over in silence such displays of arbitrary power 
and such flagrant violations of our ceded rights ? or shall we in a mild 
and Christian, yet firm and decided manner, show to the Conference our 
strong disapprobation of these unhappy and unlawful proceedings? The 
latter alternative appeared to us the more righteous and becoming course; 
and, although truly painful to those who took the lead, yet they were 
encouraged to persevere by several whose piety and judgment they 
highly respected. They were still more particularly encouraged, by 
the announcement of the Conference of 1828, that its * paternal ear 
would be always open to any communications from the quarterly 
meetings.' 

" The superintendent was accordingly informed, that several of the 
brethren conceived they had just cause of complaint in the violation of 
the constitution of Methodism, by the sanction thus given to the pro- 
ceedings of the Leeds Special District Meeting : and that it was in- 
tended to introduce the subject at the December quarterly meeting, 
with the view of putting the Conference of 1829 in possession of their 
sentiments. The superintendent deprecated the introduction of such 
matters into the quarterly meetings, alleging that it might have a ten- 
dency to disturb and unsettle the minds of several individuals, who, 

F 



38 

might, perhaps, but for the discussion, remain ignorant of the whole 
affair. To this it was replied, that if individuals were not permitted to 
deliver their sentiments, in the regular authorized meetings, they would 
in all probability be g-iving utterance to them elsewhere, which would 
have a much worse tendency. The interview ended in the mutual under- 
standing-, that the business should be brought forward at the quarterly 
meeting-, and the superintendent concluded by saying-, 'well then, I sup- 
pose we must meet the case.' Anxious to proceed with the utmost 
candour and fairness, the superintendent was waited upon a fortnight 
prior to the quarterly meeting-, with a copy of an address to Conference, 
intended to be proposed for the adoption of that meeting-. On the 
perusal of this document, some objection was taken by him to the 
phraseology of a particular part, but no fault was found with its general 
spirit and tenor. The objectionable part of the address was afterwards 
altered, and it was again presented to the superintendent prior to the 
day appointed for the quarterly meeting-. 

" Immediately after the reading of the resolutions, the superintendent 
rose and said, 'he did not consider that meeting a proper one for the 
discussion of such matters : that quarterly meetings were simply for 
the transaction of business connected with the immediate interests of 
the circuit ; that this was altogether an extraneous matter, and there- 
fore could not be entertained; but, as several of the brethren appeared 
to think they had cause of complaint, he would call a special meet- 
ing of the preachers, trustees, stewards, leaders, and local preachers, 
for the purpose of discussing the subject ; but at present he could suffer 
it to go no further.' The question was then asked, ' Will the pro- 
ceedings and resolutions of such a meeting as you now propose to call, 
have all the weight and influence with the Conference, as if emanating 
from a regular quarterly meeting ?' This was answered in the affir- 
mative, and the time and place of meeting was then fixed upon ; viz., a 
fortnight from that period, in Brunswick Chapel vestry, at seven o'clock 
in the evening. 

" At the time appointed, there was a full attendance of the preachers 
and local officers. The meeting having been opened by the superintendent, 
the foregoing resolutions were again proposed and seconded ; and after 
two or three individuals, besides the mover and seconder had delivered 
their sentiments, the superintendent rose and addressd the meeting. He 
spoke almost entirely in reference to the Southwark Address ! 
abstaining from any remarks upon the resolutions which were regularly 
before the meeting. He continued talking until nearly midnight, and 
concluded by saying, ( as to these resolutions, it will, I think, be clear 
from ivhat I have said, that I cannot put them to the vote ; 
not that I am afraid they would be carried, but because I cannot put 
any thing to the vote which I consider to be unmetiiodistical.' 
The meeting was thus broken up, the majority retiring with feelings of 
mortification and disgust at what they considered highly dishonourable 
and unchristian conduct."' 

Sir, if you can contemplate conduct like this, without the blush of 
shame spreading over, your cheek, or indignation rising in your breast, 
I envy neither your feelings nor your moral principles. Such conduct 



39 

is an outrage on every feeling-, that either British views of liberty, or 
Christian views of rectitude must inspire ; and the system requiring 
such supports, must have in it something- very different from righte- 
ousness. 

The parties thus insulted, proceeded patiently to represent their 
sentiments to your Conference ; and, in the fend hope of obtaining 
justice there, they, in the mildest and most respectful manner, stated 
the course pursued by their superintendent. The following is the 
result : — 

" On the return of the preachers from Conference a written answer was fully expect- 
ed, addressed to the brethren who, as the organ of communication, had forwarded the 
memorial to the president. Instead of receiving such an answer, however, it was in- 
timated, as from the superintendent, that no written answer had been returned by the 
Conference, but that an oral communication on the subject would be made by the 
secretary of the Conference at the September Quarterly Meeting, and it was given 
as a reason, that it was never the practice of Conference to give written replies to 
any memorials which did not come to them through the channel of a REGULAR 
Quarterly Meeting! 

" This consisted admirably with the avowal made at the December quarterly meet- 
ing, namely, ' that the quarterly meeting was not the regular channel.' But, as it was 
understood that the secretary of Conference was in possession of some sort of reply, 
written or oral, one of the brethren took an early opportunity of putting the question 
to him to ascertain the fact. To this inquiry it was replied, that the answer was a 
written one, signed by the president and one of the subsecretaries, and that it would 
be delivered at the September quarterly meeting. It was then observed, that as the 
resolutions were not allowed to be discussed in the previous quarterly meeting, as being 
altogether unconnected with the regular and legitimate business of that meeting, there 
could be no propriety whatever in delivering the answer to such a meeting. To this it 
was simply said, ' I must abide by my instructions.' 

" The greater part of the brethren who had signed the resolutions, absented them- 
selves from the Quarterly Meeting, conceiving it to be neither right nor proper, that 
the answer to their communication should be given at a meeting in which the superin- 
tendent had declared that subject could not be discussed. But an early opportunity 
was taken by the brethren, who had forwarded the address to Conference, to wait upon 
the secretary for the purpose of ascertaining from him, the precise nature of the 
answer returned. They requested to be favoured with a perusal of the document, as 
well for their own satisfaction, as for that of the other memorialists. The answer was, 
that he could have 'no objection to state the substance of the reply, which contained 
only a few words, but as to the document itself, it was merely a private communica- 
tion addressed to himself, and which he had either mislaid or destroyed ! it was however 
to the following effect, viz. that he was to state to the quarterly meeting, that the Con- 
ference had received the address sent from this circuit, and very highly approved of 
the conduct of the superintendent in steadily resisting any discussions connected icith the 
vital interests of Methodism, and that his refusal to put to the vote such resolutions ivas 
exceedingly praiseworthy ;' and it concluded by a reference to an article in the Minutes, 
as containing, it was presumed, a sufficient answer to all our objections." 

Such is the GOVERNMENT of Wesleyan Methodism ! And almost 
every circuit can testify that this is not a solitary case. Yet the defects 
complained of, are only " theoretic," and even these have yet to be 
"proved!" Sir, the injured, and maligned, and persecuted Kilham 
once exclaimed, amidst the misrepresentations and wrongs he had to 
suffer, — " O Justice ! whither art thou fled !" And may I not, after 
the specimens thus furnished, utter the same exclamation with 
respect to TRUTH ? 

I am, Sir, yours &c, 

T. ALLIN, 

Sheffield, December 24th, 1834. 



LETTER IV. 



Rev. Sir, in order to meet your statements, that the alleged defects of 
the Wesleyan government are "theoretical" merely, and that with respect 
even to these, "their existenoe has yet to he proved" — and at the 
same time, to shew that the representations of your government given 
in my address to the Delegates, are neither the errors of ignorance, nor 
the misrepresentations of malignity, as you and your worthy associates 
would lead the uninquiring to suppose, but sober truths, which, however 
they may be denied, can never be disproved, I gave, in my last, a general 
view of your Conference, as composed exclusively of one particular class 
of officers, the circuit preachers; — and noticed its uncontrolled and irres- 
ponsible legislative authority ; — the jealousy with which it views any 
attempt on the part of any other class of persons to interfere with that 
authority; — and the means it employs to preclude such interference, by 
preventing or restricting- discussion, and by making its agents, the super- 
intendents, masters in every meeting in which either the authority or 
the acts of Conference can " legally" be brought under review ; invest- 
ing them with power to refuse to put any thing to the vote considered 
by them to be " unmethodistical ;" and to dissolve the meeting-, by 
vacating- the chair, should a motion be pressed in opposition to their 
will.* Now, Sir, a g-overnment so constituted, try as you may to 
disguise it, is an oligarchy ; and power so absolute and irresponsible 
is despotic. To whatever extent, therefore, an oligarchial despotism, 

* The following case is so strikingly illustrative of the perfect despotism of the 
Wesleyan government, that it cannot be too generally known. At the quarterly 
meeting of the Bramlcy Circuit, held on Monday December 22nd, it was resolved to 
discuss the subjects which now agitate the Wesleyan community ; when, as the super- 
intendent was prevented from attending, by indisposition, " before the subjects were 
formally introduced, a deputation was appointed to wait upon him in his room, to 
inform him of the nature of the business about to be discussed, and ascertain if, in 
his opinion, resolutions which might be agreed to by the meeting in his imavoidablo 
absence, Would have the same weight and iniluence with the Conference, as if he bad 
been present. To which he replied, no! and then besought them to desist from 
their purpose; but added, if they had any grievances to complain of, they might in 
their separate and individual capacities, address the Conference upon them ! The 
deputation very naturally, and with astonishment and indignation, then inquired, are 
all the official persons in the Bramley Circuit, separately to address the Conference, on 
subjects which they feel to be common grievances ! The answer was, Yes ! The result 
of this unsatisfactory in terview was then communicated to the meeting, wliich, as may 
well be conceived, produced a very strong sensation. After some discussion, the 
deputation, was again sent to Mr. Eastwood, to urge upon him the unreasonableness 
of his accidental absence preventing them from going through their business in the 
regular Quarterly Meeting, especially as his colleague was in the Chair. Being closely 
pressed upon this point, and apparently unable satisfactorily to answer the arguments, 
he then put into their hands a letter, signed ' Joseph Taylor, President,' in which 
he was positively directed, in case any attempt should be made to introduce into any 
of the official meetings, a discussion upon the disputed topics now agitating the Con- 
nexion, by all means to repress it ; and that if it could not be otherwise effected, he was 
to leave the chair, declare the meeting dissolved, and thus Prevent any thing in 

THE SHAPE OF COMPLAINT, PASSING THROUGH THE REGULARLY' CONSTITUTED 

MEETINGS, TO THE NEXT CONFERENCE." 



41 

as a form of government, is defective, the government of Wesley an 
Methodism is so ; and had we none of its acts by which to judge, it 
would he consistent with charity to infer that a theory so defective 
would produce, as its natural result, an erroneous practice ; and that 
such a government would gradually exhibit all the vices of an^oli- 
garchy. 

We are not left, however, to mere inferences which reason may draw, 
from defects in theories and forms, to corresponding practical results ; 
we have facts in abundance, now accumulating with a frightful rapidity ; 
and which shew to all who are not wilfully or judicially blinded, that the 
acts of your government are as oppressive, as its form is defective, and 
its principles are despotic. And the man who, with a knowledge of 
those facts, can coolly publish to the world, that the defects with which 
your government is charged are merely theoretic, and have yet to be 
proved, may talk of charity as long, and as loudly as he pleases, but he 
knows as little of christian charity as he does of true liberty; and has 
still to "go and learn what that meaneth," Charity — rejoiceth not in 
iniquity, but rejoiceth in THE TRUTH. 

Already have we seen proofs of a determination on the part of your 
government to have all classes of the community in a state of absolute, 
unresisting subjection to itself: — or in plain terms, to have all other 
officers as well as members the tame slaves of the circuit preachers ; 
having no liberty, but either implicitly to obey them, as the representa- 
tives and agents of that supreme and awful authority, the Conference, 
or to leave churches partially, perhaps chiefly raised by their labours, 
and which their christian graces had pre-eminently adorned. But, Sir, 
we have not yet seen the whole extent of your claims. Not content to 
allow the pious and intelligent managers of your Sabbath Schools the 
liberty enjoyed by them during the life of the venerable founder of 
Methodism, nor even to permit the continuance of regulations that had 
his approval, you first draw up a code of laws which, to the schools 
previously established, are presented under the form of recommenda- 
tions, and then you direct or sanction the most wanton exercise of power, 
in constraining the managers of those institutions to subject them to 
your direct, and almost absolute control. Passing over your contrivances 
and contentions in the cases of Bolton Sunday school, in Lancashire ; 
of Burslem, in the Staffordshire Potteries; and of Red-Hill and Spring- 
street schools, in this town, let me crave the attention of yourself and 
the public to the following epitome of outrages and wrongs, as detailed 
in a letter addressed to Dr. Townley, the president of your preceding 
Conference, and which can at any time be satisfactorily verified. 

" The subject of dispute has been the Chester Methodist Suuday-schools. The 
John-street school was one of the first institutions of the kind established in the king- 
dom, and for more than forty years was governed by rules and regulations adopted 
by the teachers and other friends, the Methodist preachers during that time never 
having assumed any control over its management. In 1826, however, the Conference, 
deemed it proper to interfere with the schools, and drew up a number of rules and 
recommendations for then government, which were confirmed by that body the 
following year. Among these rules, fifteen in number, there were several which 
proposed some alterations in relation to these seminaries ; first, that all the circuit 
preachers should be members of the committee of management, and that the super- 



42 

intendent preacher should always preside ; second, that writing on the Sabbath-day 
should be discontinued ; and third, that the children should be brought to the public 
worship at least once on the Lord's day. To these regulations I see nothing to 
object, nor did the conductors of the Chester schools hesitate in their adoption ; they 
all stood as a part of their internal economy in their printed rules. 

" There is yet one other rule, or rather recommendation, in the new code adopted 
by Conference, the intemperate enforcement of which by the superintendent, has been 
the immediate cause of the late dissensions and division. This regulation goes to the 
reorganization of the committee, of course by the superintendent preacher, into which 
body only one- fourth of the teachers were to be admitted; the remaining three-fourths 
being composed of persons who probably never put their foot into a Methodist 
Sunday-school, and who are not likely to feel any very strong interest in its prosperity. 
This arrangement was resisted by the conductors of the school; and, I ask, Sir, in the 
name of candour and good feeling, if they were not justified in this resistance, 
whether we consider the proposition on the ground of reason or justice ? Was it 
reasonable to expect, that persons, who had been gratuitously devoting the labour of 
years to the interests of the rising generation, would quietly and tamely submit to be 
rudely driven from a management, in which their labours had been sanctioned by the 
blessing of Divine Providence, and approved by their friends and brethren around 
them. 

" The rules or recommendations to which I have already adverted, will be found in 
the Minutes of Conference of 1827, page 81-88. They are there recited at large, as 
the report of a commitee previously appointed: then follow five resolutions of Con- 
ference, which decidedly and specifically fix their application, the fourth and fifth of 
which are as follow :— '4. That all NEW Sunday Schools, which may HEREAFTER 
be established in our connexion, and which shall have the support and sanction of 
our preachers, or the aid of regular collections in our chapels, shall be established in 
conformity to the principles now explicitly adopted by the Conference, and that the 
rules and recommendations hereinbefore contained, &c, &c, shall be considered as 
the oiitline of that approved and authorized system, by which all NEW institutions 
among us are to be governed.' 

'"5. That the Conference also deems it right and expedient, not to withhold the 
affectionate expression of their most earnest hope and expectation, that the managers 
of those Sunday schools already existing, which claim any relation to Methodism, 
and are carried on by the labours and the influence of our people, or supported in 
part by collections made in our chapels, (if they have not fully done it already) will 
be induced to adopt as soon as possible the same leading principles, and to walk by 
the same general rules.' — As to the ' leading principles' and ' general rules,' here 
recommended by Conference, they have been adopted and acted upon by the John- 
street teachers ; and if in any tiring the latter have deviated, it has only been in this 
single point, that they have differed from the opinion of Conference, and preferred 
their present mode of forming their committee to that advised by the former. But 
there has been no breach of Methodist law. 

In 1825-26, Mr. Wm. Smith was the superintendent who, during his second year, 
with much more zeal than discretion, laboured to model the committees of the schools 
ill accordance Avith the Conference recommendation. His extreme violence was quite 
sufficient to defeat his object ; and even the worthy men in the society, who always 
feel it to be their Christian duty to support the priesthood, compelled him to desist for 
fear of mischief. In 1827-28, Mr. Hinson laboured in the circuit. Whether from a 
reverence to the infallibility of Conference, or from the convictions of his own mind, 
I know not, but he pressed, though with great Christian temper, the same object. 
Having, however, ascertained that it could not be accomplished without a serious 
breach in the society, and knowing, also, that the point was left to the discretion of 
the teachers, like a minister of God, and a man of peace, he desisted from the attempt, 
and left the city and circuit with credit to himself, and with the regrets of thousands. 
The Conference of 1828, brought Mr. Jackson and Mr. Rapier to Chester. " They 
found a peaceful, undisturbed and prosperous society, cordially disposed and able to 
meet its local demands, and aid the external calls of the connexion. All this was 
excellent, and might be thought amply sufficient to meet the expectations, and even 
the wishes of the body. But no. There was yet a want of reverence in the teachers 
Of the Sunday-schools. ' All this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the 
Jew sitting at the King's gate.' On Mr. Jackson's return the second year, he com- 



43 

inenced the work of coercion in good earnest. He gave the interpretation of law to 
the recommendation of Conference, and urged as a justification of what he intended to 
do, and afterwards of what he had done, the severe rebukes he had received from his 
assembled brethren, for not having brought the refractory teachers into subjection the 
preceding year. 

" At the time of Mr. Jackson's superintendency, there were three Sabbath schools 
in Chester : one in John-street, adjoining the chapel ; another in Handbridge ; and a 
third in Brook-street. The first was rented of the chapel trustees by Mr. Geo. Lowe, 
goldsmith, who was treasurer, and two of his sons superintendents ; the second was 
built chiefly through that gentleman's exertions, and those of his family, by private 
subscriptions, and were both conducted on Methodist principles, and by members of the 
society. The latter was also erected by subscription, the ground and a handome sum 
of money being given by a gentleman, not a member of the society, who is pre-eminently 
distinguished for benevolence and liberality. It should be noted, that the school in 
Brook-street was projected and built, and subscriptions solicited and given, not as for 
a Methodist Sunday school, but as one for children of all denominations. I have now 
before me a printed address, signed by Mr. Thomas Bowers, the superintendent of 
the school, in which it is so denominated. The trust deed of the building was made 
in accordance with this professed object, and amongst others, Mr. Lowe was a trustee. 
Shortly after the return of Mr. Jackson from Conference in 1829, he seems to have 
determined upon an entire revolution in the schools. 

" The trust-deed for Brook-street school was of a description he disapproved ; the 
preachers were no parties in it, and consequently had no control over the teachers, or 
in its management. This was a circumstance exceedingly offensive to Mr. Jackson, 
who urged the necessity of making a new deed upon what is called the Conference 
plan, that is, giving to the preachers a property in the building, but without responsi- 
bility, and a power to govern at their pleasure. Although the money had been collected 
under a perfect understanding that the school should not be subject to extrinsic autho- 
rity, and the deed drawn up in conformity with this view, yet, strange to say, all the 
trustees, except Mr. Lowe, were induced to yield to Mr. Jackson's persuasion, and 
consent to his wishes. Mr. Lowe, however, resisted the innovation ; and this, with 
what remains to be told, is quite sufficient to account for that hostility manifested by 
the preachers towards him and his family. The Handbridge school had been settled 
upon a similar foundation; and the trustees unanimously determined that it should 
so remain, notwithstanding the urgency of Mr. Jackson for its reconstruction. The 
school of John-street was included in the chapel trust, placed at the disposal of the 
Conference and therefore liable to that disgraceful violence which followed. 

" Towards the close of the last year, 1829, Mr. Jackson insisted upon a new com- 
mittee for the government of the schools, and he appointed one. His duty imposed no 
such necessity ; and a feeling of regard to the interests of the society forbad it. He 
was apprized of the injury that would follow, by several of the judicious leaders; but 
this was met with an assurance, that he had the concurrence of Mr. Robert Newton, 
Mr. Jabez Bunting, Mr. Watson, and several others of the influential preachers, in his 
purpose. With such support what had our worthy superintendent to fear, as it regarded 
the censure of Conference? Nothing at all. It is well known, that these excellent 
men rule and over-rule all its decisions. The teachers of the schools, however, being 
bound by no Methodistical law, refused to acknowledge the authority of Mr. Jackson's 
new-formed committee, and never condescended to amalgamate themselves with any 
of their proceedings. The management of the schools, the moral characters of the 
teachers, and their conformity to Methodist discipline, were insufficient to form any 
pretence for breaking them up. But in the close of the last year, an incident occurred, 
most opportune for those who watched for an opportunity of annoyance. A number 
of young men, leading characters in the congregations of the city, associated together 
for the purpose of qualifying themselves for assisting at a performance of the anni- 
versaries of their respective chapels. What could be thought more harmless, or rather, 
what more commendable I But no ; — our worthy superintendent designated their 
meeting on the evening of Christmas day, for a rehearsal, as a gross violation of 
morality, and what was still more serious, an infraction of Methodist law. A meeting 
of the local preachers was instantly summoned, in which the eloquence of Mr. Jackson 
was successfully employed in passing a resolution, that the preaching should be with- 
drawn from Handbridge, a populous suburb of the city. This is a curious analogy, 
when taken in connexion with the fact, that within a few davs of this transaction a 



44 

Methodist choral meeting wa* held fn Macclesfield, to which admission was given by 
tickets only at a high rate, and which was sanctioned by the approbation and the 
presence of the preachers. 

" The exclusion of the Sunday preaching from Hanubridge was followed by a re- 
solution of Mr. Jackson's new-modelled committee, that no part of the produce of the 
annual collection should be allowed to John-street or Handbridge schools; though for 
the former a rent of eight pounds a year was paid, and for the latter the interest of 
debt amounted nearly to an equal sum. It should likewise be noted, that the whole 
debt upon the Brook-street school had been liquidated by public generosity, partly, or 
perhaps principally, from the supposed liberality of its foundation; and yet to "this 
school, so much inferior in its claims, the yearly collection was to be confined. Mr. 
Jackson convened a meeting of the trustees of John-street chapel, to enforce his demand 
for the authority of his new- formed committee. Yes, and this body concurred with the 
superintendent, with only two dissentients. This fact certainly speaks favourably to 
the proceedings of the preachers, and should have great weight, until this circumstance 
be told, that these trustees had been nominated and appointed by Mr. Jackson himself, 
with a view of carrying Ids favourite points. Let it also be added, that to this meeting 
Mr. R. Newton, of Liverpool, was invited, who attended, and lent Ins powerful 
eloquence to show that the insubordination of Mr. Lowe and his sons must be con- 
quered. At this memorable assembly, it was determined that the Conference recom- 
mendation was Methodist law ; that the old superintendents and teachers of the school 
should be expelled, and that new ones, formed according to Mr. Jackson's own heart, 
should be appointed. This meeting was held on the Friday evening, and on the next 
night, a little before midnight, locksmiths were in operation, the locks taken off, new 
ones put on, and on the Sabbath morning, the Rev. Mr. Jackson, the new treasurer, 
Mr. Guest, and two or three fresh superintendents, long before school-hours, had 
taken possession of the school. I would spare Christian feeling, in detailing what 
followed, when the old superintendents and teachers arrived ; it is enough to say that 
the children rejected their new visitors, and with one voice declared their attachment 
to the men, who for years had taught them in the way of truth. I do not know whe- 
ther it is a subject to be regretted, but the fact is that on the conclusion of the Sabbath 
school service, the buildingwas again taken possession of by Mr. Jackson's adherents. 
On the morning of Monday, carpenters and bricklayers were busily engaged in bricking 
up the door-posts and barricading the windows; and for about a fortnight, bludgeon- 
men were employed in resisting a forcible entrance. 

" I am quite certain, that Mr. Lowe would have been legally justified in making a 
forcible entrance, and such was the decided opinion of his legal adviser ; but surely 
enough had been done, to bring Methodism into disgrace ; and besides, it was hardly 
likely that Mr. Lowe would hazard a protracted litigation with a powerful body of 
men, with whom money was of no more value than its mere collection, and especi- 
ally after the admonitory caution addressed to Mr. Lowe's family by Mr. Rayner, — 
' What, are you able to sustain a law-suit with the Conference V 

" The plea of our worthy superintendent and his colleague has ever been, that Mr. 
Lowe and his sons were no Methodists; and their justification of this assertion has 
been, first, their refusal to sign a new trust for Brook-street, contrary to its professed 
design : and secondly, an objection to the nature of the committee recommended by 
the Conference. This, Sir, is the whole amount of their ofi'cnce, and I believe all that 
is imputed to them. And yet for this they have been turned out of John-street, and 
the preaching excluded from Handbiidge. 

" It will very naturally be inquired, from whence has arisen this commotion, — 
these scenes of violence, in which Methodists and Methodist preachers are the actors? 
Is it because some gross dereliction of duty has been discovered in the conductors of 
St. John's-street school ? No. Not a word of complaint has been urged against the 
morals or against the management of the individuals connected with this school. The 
character of these men would be an ample refutation of such a charge. Mr. George 
Lowe, who has been a nursing father to this school for more than forty years, and 
whose piety and integrity have ever been unimpeachable, is the treasurer ; two of his 
sons, who have for years devoted the whole of their Sabbaths, and two evenings in 
every week, in promoting the instruction of the children, the superintendents; while 
another son and daughter are active and efficient teachers, and who are all, and have 
been for years, members of the Methodist society. All the other persons employed in 
the school are also either members of the society, or of unblemished moral character. 



45 

Has the relentless spirit of persecution been excited from improper officers or indivi- 
duals having direction of the institution? No. All the officers and teachers are of the 
class already described, and besides, their visitors are uniformly selected from the 
Methodist leaders. Has any attempt been made at innovation, or has any disposition 
been shown to usurp authority over the superintendent, or other preacher ? Certainly 
not. The conductors only wish to be governed by those laws by which the school has 
been generally regulated for nearly fifty years ; and by the present rules, the superin- 
tendent preacher is appointed to preside at all their meetings. But, have no books of 
instruction inimical to the doctrines of Christianity or of Methodism, been introduced 
openly or insidiously I Nothing of the kind. No books have ever been used in the 
school but the Bible and Testament, and elementary books, printed or sanctioned by 
the Methodist Conference. To come still nearer to the point, it may be asked have 
not the conductors of the schools violated some acknowledged law of Conference ? I 
answer, emphatically , and decidedly, NO ! — NO ! — Not an iota of law, ha the letter, or 
in the spirit, has been broken. I challenge, I invite, a disproval of this assertion. In 
the mean time, E take leave to say, that the sole cause of the outrages already enumer- 
ated, arises from the disappointed ambition of the superintendent preacher, who 
violently attempted to enforce a point, which the Conference only recommended. He 
insisted upon his right of nominating the governors of the school ; the conductors have 
resisted his pretensions. Here is the ' head and front of their offending.' Let the 
Methodist, let the English, and especially, let the Chester public judge, between the 
oppressed and the oppressors, the persecuted and the persecutors." 

It is easy to say, Sir, what judgment "the English and the Chester 
public" must pronounce on conduct like this. They must see a deter- 
mination, strongly marked, on the part of Conference, to bring the 
Sunday schools, considered as property, and all the managers of them, 
under its direct control, by putting all real authority into the hands of its 
agents, the superintendents ; — placing them in the chairs at all meetings, 
invested of course, with the plenitude of Wesleyan Methodistic power 
to disallow or permit discussion, or to continue or dissolve the meetings 
at their pleasure ; — making superintendents and committees of schools 
their mere nominees, and teachers, monitors, &c, their vassals. In all 
this, an observant public must see one of the most characteristic and 
revolting features of priestcraft — viz., a grasping ambition, which recog- 
nizes no rights as existing in any class of persons, except the absolute 
right of the priesthood to legislate and coerce ; and which, blinding the 
minds and hardening the hearts of its votaries, prepares them, under 
the imposing names of church-order, and pastoral rule, to perpetrate 
deeds at which an honest heathen would blush ; and to insult, and injure, 
and drive from the church of Christ, men who ranked among its bright- 
est ornaments, and its most illustrious benefactors. 

The same authority is extended to your Missionary institutions ; and 
gradually are you trying to bring all your trust-estates into the same 
absolute subjection to it. In fact, scarcely any thing connected with a 
Wesleyan Chapel or society, be its character and professed object ever 
so general, but must be rendered sectarian, by its subjection to the autho- 
rity of Conference, through the medium of the superintendent preachers. 
The history of some cases of this class would present lamentable in- 
stances of the most glaring violation of public faith, and of the sacrifice 
of every honourable principle on the altar of an unholy ambition. But 
those I at present pass over, as I must notice that important branch of 
your system relating to the appointment and removal of the officers of 
your churches, and the admission and expulsion of members. The power 
claimed and exercised by your preachers in these matters, became, soon 

G 



46 

after the death of Mr. Wesley, a source of Jeep dissatisfaction, and a 
subject of loud complaint. For though, as was stated by the complain- 
ants, some preachers, deeply imbued with the spirit of their master, con- 
sulted their people, and acted only with the concurrence of the respec- 
tive meetings, others, possessing- more of the pride of power than of the 
humility of the gospe), could not stoop to take the judgment of those 
over whom they swayed the sceptre of authority, but at their own will 
admitted members or excluded them, and appointed officers or set them 
aside. The celebrated charter of 1795 was therefore granted, with its 
subsequent regulations ; and which some of your people, in the simpli- 
city of their hearts, thought had fully secured to them the rights for 
which they had so strenuously contended. Glad, Sir, should I be, could 
I bring myself to believe that the individuals by whom those documents 
were drawn up were actuated by the same unmingled godly sincerity. 
But though much was conceded in appearance and profession, yet the 
" chartered rights" were few ; and there is too much cause to fear, that 
under an ambiguous phraseology, a meaning- was couched, different 
from that intended to be understood ; while the people were designedly 
lulled by the supposition that power was given up which was only in 
abeyance, until a fit time should arrive for taking- off the veil, and 
resuming- that which was supposed to have been permanently surren- 
dered. To this conclusion I seem inevitably driven, whether I examine 
the " charter" itself, or the following- statement of the inherent rig-hts 
of Conference, as avowed by Mr. Mather and his coadjutors, in 1796. 

They say, " We are of one mind as to the power vested in Conference ; and we 
approve of the account given of that power in the Manchester protest, viz. " The power 
of Conference is neither usurped, nor wholly delegated by men, but first is given to 
them by God, in common with all who are by him called to the work of the ministry, 
Acts xx. 28. 1 Thes. v. 12, 13. 1 Tim. v. 17, 19. Heb. xiii. 7, 17. 1 Peter i. 5. 
Secondly, it is a power inherent in themselves, as ministers who have formed them- 
selves into a body, and made out rules as they judged proper for the government and 
direction of that body, and all who might desire to unite with them, both as preachers 
and people ; which must consequently imply a power of judging with whom they will 
and will not hold this fellowship, viz. such as are subject to these rules, and so long as 
they are so." 

It is impossible not to perceive that the holders of such a doctrine 
would concede as few as possible of those rights which they believed 
they held from God, and which, therefore, unless so far as they were 
impelled by dire necessity, they could not conscientiously relinquish. 
Those few would also be surrendered as defectively as possible, and with 
every conceivable limitation: while the way would be left open to 
resume them at some future favourable opportunity. Such, I fear, were 
the views of the ruling party in Conference, which then, as now, num- 
bered but comparatively few. Let us, however, look both at the grants 
themselves and the language of Conference respecting them. 

In respect to the receiving and excluding private members of the Society : 
" The Leaders' meeting shall have a right to declare any person on trial, improper 
to be received into the Society : and, after such declaration, the Superintendent shall 
not admit such person into the Society. No person shall be expelled from the Society 
for immorality, till such immorality be- proved at a Leaders' Meeting. 

In respect to the appointment and removal of Leaders, Stewards, and Local 
Preachers : — 



47 

** No person shall be appointed a Leader or Steward, or be removed from bis office, 
but in conjuction with the Leaders' Meeting : the nomination to be in the Superinten- 
dent, and the approbation or disapprobation in the Leaders' Meeting. — The former 
Rule concerning Local Preachers is confirmed : viz., That no person shall receive a 
plan as a Local Preacher, without the approbation of a Local Preachers'* Meeting. 

" Thus, brethren, we have given up the greatest part of our executive government 
into your hands, as represented in your different public Meetings. — Our Societies 
have a full check on the Superintendent, by means of their Leaders' meeting, in 
regard to the introduction of persons into Society; whilst the Superintendent has 
sufficient scope allowed him for the increase of the Societies, not only according to the 
common course of things, but at the times of remarkable out-pourings of the Spirit of 
God. — The Members of our Societies are delivered from every apprehension of clan- 
destine expulsions ; as that Superintendent would be bold indeed, who would act with 
partiality or injustice hi the presence of the whole Meeting of Leaders. Such a Super- 
intendent, we trust, we have not among us; and if such there ever should be, we should 
be ready to do all possible justice to our injured brethren. — There is now no Society- 
Officer among us, who can be received without the consent of that Meeting to which he 
particularly belongs : nor can any officer be appointed, except upon the same plan. 
— In short, Brethren, out of our great love for peace and union, and our great desire to 
satisfy your minds, we have given up to you far the greatest part of the Superinten- 
dent's authority." — Dr. Warren's Digest, 'Vol. I. pp. 238,233,235. 

Your people, Sir, were here told, that " the greatest part of the ex- 
ecutive government" and of " the superintendents' authority" was given 
into their hands. And they generally supposed, that, according- to these 
regulations, no preacher could either admit, or expel a member, without 
the consent of a majority of a leaders' meeting; and that neither local 
preacher, nor leader, nor steward, could either be admitted without the 
approbation of the meeting of which he was to form a part, or removed 
from it, unless in the judgment of such meeting the matter with which 
he stood charged was both proved against him, and merited such a 
punishment. So much, they thought, was involved in the protective 
clauses, — "proved at a leaders' meeting" — and, "in conjuction with the 
leaders' meeting" : more especially when these were among the privi- 
leges for which they had strenuously contended, and in reference to 
which they were told, — " Out of our great love for peace and union, 
and our great desire to satisfy your minds, we have given up to vouBY 
FAR THE GREATEST PART of the superintendents' authority." 
Such, I believe, was the view entertained by Dr. Clarke, and by those 
preachers, who, like him, were too noble-minded to stoop to the adop- 
tion of a crooked policy to serve a temporary purpose. And for some 
time, the meetings seem to have been permitted to exercise these pre- 
rogatives, without any direct interruption. On close examination, 
however, it will be found that the only right distinctly recognized, as 
existing in the meetings, is a simple veto on the admission of any mem- 
ber or officer whom the superintendent might propose. With him was 
still left the exclusive nomination of leaders, stewards, &c; and in cases 
of removal from membership or office, the laws are either entirely silent, 
or their language is much less precise. A charge against a member 
must " be proved at a leaders' meeting ;" and though among single- 
minded men, there would be little room to dispute the meaning of such 
an expression, yet in some of your courts, and by some of your law- 
authorities it has been interpreted to mean — in the presence of the 
leaders — not to their satisfaction, but to the satisfaction of the Superin- 
tendent. And, Sir, though this is a construction which the most 



48 

unprincipled lawyer in the kingdom would scarcely venture to propose 
to the most ignorant or unprincipled jury to be found in any British court 
of judicature, yet it seems to be supported by the following singular 
enactment : 

" No Trustee, however accused, or defective in conformity to the established Rules 
of the Society, shall be removed from the Society, unless his crime or breach of the 
Rules of the Society be proved, in the presence of the Trustees and Leaders. 1794.'' 
See Digest p. 281. 

The strangeness of this language, considered as the language of legis- 
lation, clearly points out the singularity of its meaning; and leaves 
no room to doubt that the intention of the legislators was to vest the 
right of judgment in some other party than the trustees and leaders, 
leaving them merely as witnesses, or, should they deem it right to be so, 
as approvers. Thus the superintendent might allow himself to be in- 
fluenced by their presence and views, but was not bound by their judg- 
ment. And if the same principle be not involved in the following 
statement, I am utterly at a loss how it is to be understood : 

" The Members of our Societies are delivered from every apprehension of clandes- 
tine expulsions; as that Superintendent would be bold indeed, who would act with 
partiality or injustice in the presence of the whole Meeting of Leaders." — Dr. War- 
ren's Digest, p. 234. 

This declaration professedly refers to the stipulation, that immorality 
is to be " proved at a leaders' meeting." In this declaration, however, 
though it is sufficiently lengthy, not an expression occurs to indicate, 
either that the right of judgment is vested in the leaders' meeting — or 
that the superintendent is bound by their views — or that, should he 
give sentence in opposition to their judgment, any law is violated, and 
such sentence shall be void. He is, indeed, supposed to be awed by 
their presence, or, it may be, influenced by their opinions; but this is 
all. " That superintendent would be bold indeed, who would act with 
partiality or injustice in the presence of the whole meeting of leaders." 
And though the announcement is formally made, that the " societies 
have a full check on the superintendent by means of their leaders' 
meeting, in regard to the introduction of persons into society ;" yet not 
a word occurs respecting such a check on their expulsion. Such are 
some of the rights secured by your boasted magna charta; and I 
fear I may add, such were the deceptions practised on your people by 
their legislators, in order to allay excitement by a shew of liberty, until 
a fit opportunity should arrive of taking away that liberty, under the 
sanction of the very laws by which it was supposed to have been given. 

In relation to leaders and stewards the language employed is some- 
what less indefinite. They are not' to' be removed from office, except 
"in conjunction with the leaders' meeting." But it is easy to see, that 
by a very trifling extension of the same quibbling, which proves that 
" at a leaders' meeting," does not mean — to the satisfaction of that 
meeting, it may be shewn, that — "in conjunction," does not imply con- 
currence, but connexion; or, as in the former case, "in the presence" 
of the meeting. To my mind, too, it seems an ominous circumstance, 
that though with respect to "the nomination" of a leader or steward, it 
is expressly provided, that "the approbation or disapprobation" shall be 
"in the leaders' meeting," yet in reference to removal, there is no 



49 

such stipulation ; and though the people are afterwards informed, 
" There is now no society-officer among us, who can be received without 
the consent of that meeting- to which he particularly belongs; nor can 
any officer be appointed except upon the same plan," yet on the subject 
of removal from office the most profound silence is preserved ! So far, 
Sir, from viewing this as unintentional, I consider it to be the natural, 
or necessary result of the doctrine of " inherent rights," and correspon- 
dent exclusive responsibilities, as held by some of the then rulers in 
Israel, as well as by those who at present rule. And, indeed, to the 
consistent maintainence of those rights, much more than this is neces- 
sary. But on this subject I shall say more hereafter. 

The concessions, some of which were, in law, apparent only, though 
real in practice, produced, to a considerable extent, their intended effect. 
Excitement was allayed ; jealousies were lulled ; and, notwithstanding 
occasional discontents, general peace and confidence and prosperity pre- 
vailed. But the eye of certain parties in Conference was steadily kept 
on the diminished prerogative, and a purpose was formed to obtain its 
resumption. The first general step towards this object, of which the 
public have any information, was thus announced in 1825, by Mr. 
Robinson, of Beverly, whose testimony is, I believe, unrefuted and 
irrefutable. 

"If there could remain a doubt respecting the absolute and uncontrollable power of 
a superintendent, I would cite the testimony of a very competent witness — Mr. Gal- 
land, the Beverly superintendent — who informed Mr. Anthony Atkinson, Mr. J. 
Shepherd, and myself, when he met us to refute the truth of my "Observations," that 
he heard the question discussed in Conference, whether or not a superintendent 
should have the power to dismiss from the society any member, leader, steward, or 
trustee, of his own accord, and that even in opposition to the wish of a trustee or 
leaders' meeting — and that it was determined, that a superintendent should have 
such a power, to exercise on extraordinary occasions, he being judge as to 

WHAT CASES SHOULD BE CONSIDERED EXTRAORDINARY. He observed, tllis did 

not arise out of any written law but out of an agreement amongst themselves. 
This makes the case all the worse ; as the preachers can act on any law they please 
to make, and that without the people being aware that such law exists. At a subse- 
quent trustee meeting, Mr. Galland was asked if this was true ? He not only acknow- 
ledged its truth, but said, that a case occurred in the Lincoln circuit, when he was 
superintendent there, where a charge was brought against a member, and several 
official persons were opposed to his being dismissed, but that if all the quarterly 
meeting had been against it, he should have thought himself justified in putting 
him out of the society !" 

The Leeds case, however, in 1827, which formed an epoch in the 
history of Wesleyan Methodism, supplied the occasion of sounding out 
more loudly the inherent rights and exclusive responsibilities of the 
circuit preachers, and of more- distinctly asserting the prerogatives of 
Conference and its representatives. And since that period, the frequent 
removal from office, or membership, by the authority of superintendents 
alone, demonstrates that the judgment of the respective meetings is in 
such cases looked upon, not as a chartered inalienable right, but rather 
as a privilege, the exercise of which is allowed or superseded, according 
to the kindness or lordliness of the preacher, and the real or supposed 
disposition of the people. To cite all the cases of flagrant injustice, which 
have taken place under the operation of this system, is impossible; as the 
victims have not unfrequently been men whose timidity, or poverty, or 



50 

obscure situation prevented their voices from being- raised, or if raised, 
from being- heard beyond the limits of their own societies or circuits. 
Their cry has gone up to heaven, where it has been regarded ; while on 
earth they have found but little sympathy, and no redress. Happily, 
however, through the medium of the Wesleyan Circular, and the Chris- 
tian Advocate, many such deeds, which must otherwise have remained 
in darkness, have been brought to light ; and the eyes of thousands of 
your own people and of the public at large have been opened to the 
practical effects of your despotism. Some of these deeds, out of many 
almost equally revolting, I have already given. As an additional illus- 
tration of the unparalleled oppression, which, in conformity with law, is 
practised among you, and of the pontifical lordliness of spirit in which 
your laws are executed, I present you with the following statement of 
facts, every one of which, even the least, throws some light on — not 
only the " theoretical defects" of your government, but the enormous 
practical wrongs naturally produced by it : — 

"to the editors of the christian advocate. 
" Sirs, — Mr. Scott and myself having been wrongfully expelled from the Wesleyan 
Methodist Society, and false assertions having been extensively promulgated by our 
opponents, I beg leave to publish the real facts, leaving the reader to draw his own 
inferences. 

" Mr. Baker, the superintendent minister shortly after his arrival in this place, 
considering the classes of Messrs. Salter and Josephus Ferris too numerous, intimated 
his intention of dividing them. He had previously nominated Mr. Ellery, a young 
man who had been a member of the society about two years, as a leader, but for what 
class it was not known ; he was, however, duly appointed at a leaders' meeting, and, 
in order to provide a class for him, Mr. Salter's was divided. But when informed of 
the intended division, the members expressed their disapprobation, and one and all 
repulsed the effort; while the leader, Mr. Salter, said, ' If we stand together, who can 
divide us}' He added, that he much respected the person appointed, but did not con- 
sider him equal to the task. Notwithstanding, Mr. Baker persisted in dividing them, 
and instructed Mr. Salter to do it ; but he, not liking to act in so arbitrary a manner, 
wished Mr. Baker to undertake the task. Mr. Baker inquired whether they were 
reasonable men, and being assured they were, expressed his intention of complying 
with Mr. Salter's request; but he subsequently declined, stating that he had to preach 
in town that day, and was afraid Ms mind would be ruffled. He therefore ordered 
Mr. Salter to divide them by lot, and ten members were separated, to be met by Mr. 
Ellery. It was in vain for them to object; they must meet with him or be wholly 
destitute of a spiritual guide. However, they still protested against his appointment, 
objecting to his short standing in the church, and his consequent inexperience. There 
were two members of their own class whom they would gladly have accepted ; one of 
whom had been a member forty-five years, and had been a leader in other circuits ; 
the other, of twenty years' standing, had been a local preacher, and had supplied the 
place of his leader, in his absence. They intimated their desire to have either of these 
appointed as their leader, instead of Mr. Ellery; but Mr Baker declared that no mem- 
ber should have the choice of his leader. An intimate friend of Mr. Baker's, a kindred 
spirit, one who lias directed Ms movements throughout the transaction, declared be 
considered it better for a hundred members to leave the society, than to choose their 
own leaders. Mr. Baker has repeatedly said, he did not value a hundred members, 
for he was confident whatever deficiency there might be occasioned in money matters 
by their loss, would be readily made up by the respectable part of the members* On 
another occasion he remarked that it had been a democracy, but lie was determined it 
should remain so no longer ; and, again, when some short-sighted leaders intimated 
that they were afraid of the consequences, he remarked, ' I am not ; it is for me to 
drive the oxen, and God will take care of the ark.' 

" At a leaders' meeting, subsequent to the one at which Mr. Ellery Mas appointed, 
Mr. Baker nominated two other young men as leaders, the first of whom was unani- 
mously elected ; the other who had been recommended by Mr. Boot (late of this circuit,) 



51 

was supported by many friends, and would undoubtedly have been chosen, had not 
his leader opposed him, stating that he was not an orthodox Methodist, and (to use 
his own words) was ' too peppery.' In consequence of this observation, Mr. Boot 
withdrew his nomination. I objected to this coarse of proceeding so contrary to rule. 
I stated that he was then in the hands of his brethren ; that it was the superintend- 
ent's place to nominate, and oars to accept or refuse ; but Mr. Baker sternly replied, 
' I'll withdraw as many as I please, if I hear any tiling of them with which I am not 
satisfied.' 

" To a female who applied to Brother Scott to be admitted into his class, he stated 
that he could not admit her, as it would be acting in opposition to a resolution passed 
at a leader's meeting, and requested her to meet with one of the leaders appointed; 
upon which she burst into tears, and said she could not meet in any other class ; when 
the members rose and said, he ought to receive her ; he replied, ' If I do I shall be 
turned out of office ;' to which they all answered, ' Then we will follow you,' and, re- 
membering the words of Him who said, ' Whosoever cometh unto me, I will in no-wise 
cast out,' he allowed her to attend his meeting, but did not enter her name in his book 
as a member. 

" A man asked me the week before, if I would allow lnm to meet in my class, as he 
should not make application to any of the other leaders. I sent him no answer ; but, 
on going to the class, met him at the door. He asked me if I would allow him to 
enter, saying, ' through arbitrary measures I have long enough been deprived of the 
means, and wish to be instructed.' I felt for him, I saw the precipice on which he 
stood, took him by the hand, and we entered together ; not with a design to receive 
him as a member of my class, but to save him, if possible, from returning like the 
' dog to his vomit,' until the storm of spiritual opposition was blown over. 

" In a few days I received the following note : — ' Dear Brother, a report has 
reached us, that you have offered to take any of those members into your classes who 
lately met with G. Veal, and those who have been drafted from brother Ferris's and 
brother Salter's classes, and who have refused to meet in any of the four classes pro- 
vided for them. You must allow me to tell you, that this must not be done ; the 
decision of the leaders' meeting was founded in the fear of God, and from the best 
motives ; and you will, on calmly considering the matter, see that it will be truly 
improper for any one leader to counteract the decision of the leaders' meeting. 

" October 19th, 1833.' Yours truly, J. BAKER." 

" This was followed by Mr. Baker's introducing a resolution at the leaders' meeting 
to the following effect. — ' We resolve, that, if any brother shall meet any of the 
members drafted from Messrs. Ferris's and Salter's classes, except the leaders appointed 
for them, they shall be no longer members of this meeting.' 

" I then asked Mr. Baker if there were not rules for the government of the super- 
intendent, and the leaders' meeting; to which he replied ' Certainly not : it is im- 
possible for Conference to make rules to suit every case; but it is for us to make rules 
according to circumstances and general usage.'' I told him I had been connected with 
the society for upwards of thirty years, and more than twenty years a member, but had 
never seen usage of this kind before ; as I had always seen members allowed to meet 
with the leader of whom they approved. He replied, ' if you are aggrieved, you can 
appeal to a District meeting.' 

" At the end of another fortnight, we met Mr. Baker, as usual ; he said he had heard 
that certain brethren had met some of the members which the resolution of the last 
meeting prohibited ; and he was determined to carry the resolution into effect. He 
then asked brother Scott if he had met any of the members. He answered he had 
met one. He next inquired of me if I had spoken to any of them ; I replied, I had 
to one. He said, ' It remains with you to say whether you will be any longer members 
of this meeting or not; if you will not promise to refrain from speaking to those mem- 
bers, you will be no longer members of this meeting.' We told him, to us it was a 
matter of conscience, and we could not make any such promise. He was about to 
exclude us from office, when an old and respected leader said, ' he had not the power 
of doing so.' He read the rule in the class-book, relative to the removal of leaders 
froni office, and found it could not be done, but in conjunction with a leaders' meeting, 
and designated it as a species of popery ; and said, if Mr. Baker persisted, he should 
be under the necessity of calling a district meeting within three days. Mr. Baker 
replied, 'You may call a district meeting if you please, Sir; I know the law — this case 
has been settled over and over again in the Leeds case ; and really, Sir, I have been 



52 

informed that this is not the first time you have preached your seditious doctrines at a 
leaders' meeting.' This worthy leader, not willing to quarrel, turned round and said, 
1 Do, my brethren, desist from speaking to those members.' We said again, it was a 
point of conscience, and we could not. Mr. Baker was again about to pass sentence 
of exclusion from office, when I told him that the resolution upon which he acted was 
not that of a leaders'" meeting ; for some of the leadei-s did not understand it to exclude 
the leaders, but the drafted members. Mr. Baker replied, It was of no consequence, 
he would carry it into effect. When another old and respected leader said, ' Sir, if 
you are determined to put these leaders out, I will not lift my hand against them.' 
Mr. Baker exclaimed, ' What ! am I a child then I I did not expect opposition from 
this quarter especially.' And then, becoming more calm, said, 'It is my prero- 
gative ; yet, out of 'courtesy, I will take the voice of the meeting.'* At the same time, 
he stated, that he would not meet the leaders anymore onlhe point of discipline, while 
in the circuit; which threat he earned into execution before that day week, inasmuch 
as, without a leaders'" meeting, he expelled me from the society, and denied me the use of 



* See this prerogative thus exercised by the superintendent of the Oldham circuit 
in May last. " Charges were preferred against three persons who had taken part in 
the meeting held at Oldham, concerning the case of the Rev. J. R. Stephens : namely, 
— Messrs. W. Knott, Hat-manufacturer, and local preacher; G. Jacques, leader and 
local preacher, and Henry Taylor, leader. They were informed by a written notice, 
that they were required to attend a special leaders' meeting on the Monday following, 
' for having promoted a meeting contrary to the established rules and usages of 
Methodism.'' Mr. Knott was first charged with having acknowledged that ' the requi- 
sition presented to the circuit stewards was his; he had bought it and paid for it? It 
had been intended to make Mr. Knott's brother John, who is one of the stewards, a 
witness against him, but he declined the task, and the accusation was proved by the 
Rev. Mr. Turner, the second travelling preacher, on the circuit, who happened to be 
in an adjoining apartment when the expression- was made use of. For this offence 
Mr. Knott was adjudged to be expelled from the society. Mr. Jacques was next 
charged with ' having acknowledged at a pevious leaders^ meeting, that he had 
presented the requisition for signatures,'' which was proved by Mr. Janus Miller; 
and Mr. Taylor was charged with having 'presented it to the circuit stewards,' which 
was proved by Mr. John Knott. The Rev. Mr. Wolsey then read over a rule passed 
about the year 1798, forbidding the calling of any meeting without the consent of the 
travelling preacher or preachers ; and on that rule he pronounced that William 
Knott and George Jacques were no longer members of the Wesleyan Methodist 
Society, and that the sentence on Henry Taylor was deferred. The leaders then in- 
quired whether they had nothing to say or do in the business I — Mr. Wolsey said they 
had not ; he should not, on any account, submit either the conviction or punishment 
to their vote. Some of them attempted to speak, but were repeatedly silenced by the 
Rev. gentleman. One asked whether he considered that law a righteous and scriptural 
one ? and was answered by the same authority, that he would not allow the law to be 
questioned ; it was a point with which they had nothing to do. Another leader observed 
that he had witnessed proceedings in courts of justice, and never knew either felons 
or murderers treated in the manner the defendents had been that day. Their case 
had not been submitted to a jury; and Mr. Wolsey appeared to be acting in the 
capacity both of judge and jury. Mr. Wolsey said, they (the leaders) were the jury, 
and he was the judge. The leaders then demanded their right to express their opinions, 
but he positively refused to put the question to a vote, either as to the proof of the 
offence or the mode of punishment. — One leader cried out ' popery, popery ;' another 
said, ' the Rev. gentleman has long been deemed a Cardinal, but his conduct is worse 
than that of the Pope.' It was remarked by one leader, that though the law Avas 
explicit, there was no punishment annexed. — Mr. Wolsey, however, would not allow 
it to come before them as a question, and repeated the sentence in authoritative 
language, declaring that there was no appeal, and that he was responsible for conse- 
quences.— A local preacher and leader then said, if the brothers before the meeting 
were guilty, so was he. — Mr. Wolsey replied that he had nothing to do with that, he 
was not charged.— The leader then said he would no longer act with the preachers. 
When sentence on Mr. Taylor was deferred, he asked why he had been treated differ- 
ently from his brothers? — Mr. Wolsey said it was an act of mercy. — Mr. Taylor said 
he scorned such mcrcv." 



53 

the pulpit. He then took the opinion of the meeting. Thirteen leaders were present ; 
seven of whom, including the two young leaders last appointed, held up their hands 
against us. Mr. Baker then said, We were no longer members of that meeting. 
Brother Scott, an aged man, was overwhelmed with grief . I waited to see who would 
be appointed to our classes, when Mr. Baker said, " I cannot think of proceeding to 
business while I see any one here who is not a member of this meeting." * * * 

This, Sir, is Wesleyan Methodism — as it is ; not caricatured ; not 
a single lineament distorted or disfigured; but in its own native form. 
Those who are sufficiently imbued with the spirit of despotism or slavery, 
may call it beautiful, and may admire it as the model of perfection ; but 
in this part of the structure I see the lineaments of the man of sin, and 
the deformity and spirit of the beast ; though, thanks to the God of 
providence ! at present without their power. 

Now, Sir, it matters little what minor privileges or even rights may 
be enjoyed by your people ; for so long as they are exposed to oppres- 
sions and wrongs like those already enumerated, their most valuable 
rights are denied, and they are strangers to liberty. Of what importance 
is it that officers have a veto on the nominations of a superintendent, so 
long as no other person has authority to nominate, and the superintend- 
ent can, when he deems it expedient, harrass, or depose any whose 
honourable independence prevents them from being his passive vassals? 
Of what value are meetings for discussion, which have an absolute mas- 
ter placed over them, armed with authority either to forbid the intro- 
duction of any subject which he chooses to pronounce " unmethodistical," 
— or to refuse to put to the vote any motion which he knows will be 
offensive to his superiors — or to dissolve the meeting, when he can no 
longer repress its spirit — or to thrust out of the church the opposers of 
his will, as rebellious or contumacious ? And of what value is the lau- 
ded right of petition and remonstrance when trammelled with such restric- 
tions as you impose — or when, though exercised in the most temperate, 
and respectful manner, as in the case of Rochdale, it only brings down 
the frown of those addressed? Above all, what is there that can deserve 
the name of liberty, so long as your private members, who constitute 
the great body of the church, have no voice, either in the nomination or 
appointment of any officer, — no, not so much as that of their own class- 
leader ; but, like so many intelligent machines, have only to learn and 
obey the will of their spiritual lords ? Or what can you possess of 
liberty so long as no class of the community has any voice, either per- 
sonally, or by representation, in that assembly which gives law to the 
whole body ? Not only as Britons, Sir, but as Christians we maintain, 
that in reference to human legislation and government, without repre- 
sentation, the liberty we are entitled to claim cannot be enjoyed ; and 
that the following principles are correct : 

1. Men, as rational and moral beings, have a property and correspondent rights, 
both in their own persons, and in surrounding objects, of which they cannot justly be 
deprived, except as a punishment for crime, or to secure a greater public good. 

2. The end of government is not the honour or emolument of the governors, but 
the order and happiness of the governed ; or, in other words — the welfare of society 
at large. 

3. As no one is either infallible in judgment, or absolutely perfect in moral prin- 
ciples and character — and as the possession of absolute power tends both to warp the 
judgment, and excite irregular passions, and thus leads to injustice; a government in 

H 



54 

which the several classes of society are fairly represented, is the most likely so to 
legislate and rule, as to harmonize the jarring interests, provide for the diversified 
wants, and secure the order and happiness of the whole. 

4. In order that such representation may be effective, it must not only exist in the 
inferior courts, but it must extend to the supreme legislative assemblies; securing there 
that expression to the general voice, and that influence to the general will, without 
which, neither are the true interests of the society likely to be understood, nor its 
liberties likely to be perpetuated. 

These are the strong grounds on which, as Britons, we rest our claims for a repre- 
sentative government ; and this is the extent to which Ave require that representation 
to be carried. Now these grounds exist as perfectly in religious, as in civil society : for 

1. In religious society members have a direct personal interest in the ministry thev 
support, the places of worship they build, the doctrines they hear, the ordinances they 
share, and the religious associations they form. These have been instituted either by 
them, or for their sake. The members, therefore, form that community to which the 
temporal goods, the religious ordinances, and both the offices and officers of the com- 
munity belong, or for the benefit of which all were instituted. They, consequently, 
have as direct an interest in legislation and government — in the due administration of 
the laws of the community, and in the right appropriation of its property, as they 
possess in civil society. 

2. In the Church, as well as in the world, the end of government is to secure the 
order and happiness of the whole body, by the enactment and impartial administration 
of those laws which its circumstances require, and the right appropriation of its property. 

3. In the Church neither perfect wisdom nor absolute rectitude is found in any par- 
ticular class of persons, whether pastors or members ; therefore, notwithstanding the 
deference and esteem that may be due to ministers, as the general expounders of the 
law of Christ, yet they cannot be entitled either to implicit faith or universal obedience. 
Contrariwise, their liability to err in judgment and practice renders it necessary that 
others should be associated with them, to direct by their counsels and support by their 
influence, to prevent decisions by which some might be injured, and others disgusted ; 
and to assist in the- adoption of such measures as the wants and wishes of the com- 
munity may demand. The community too, having such a property and interest in all 
its own institutions, possesses an unequivocal natural .right to require such an associ- 
ation. The right, in fact, exists as perfectly in religious, as in civil society ; and may, 
therefore, be freely claimed and exercised in the former, as well as in the latter of 
these situations. The representative system of government, which, as Britons, we 
hold so dear, and on wlrich alone, as we have been made to feel, our civil liberties can 
securely rest, is equally adapted to religious society ; and there also presents the surest 
guarantee against the errors of ignorance and prejudice, and the aggressions of covet- 
ousness, ambition, and revenge. 

4. Representation in the Church, to be efficient, must be extended to the highest, 
as well as to the lowest legislative assemblies ; nor does it seem easy to justify the 
association of other officers with the ministry, in leaders' and quarterly meetings, except 
on principles that will as clearly prove the necessity of such an association in district 
meetings and Conferences. If, indeed, the security of public liberty requires that such 
an association should exist, when the interests of only an individual member, or of a 
society, or of a circuit are concerned, much more is it reqxured in those assemblies, 
the decisions of which deeply involve the liberty, the peace, and the welfare of the 
whole body. 

These principles you practically deny, and flagrantly outrage. With 
you, an aristocracy of preachers determine who, from among- themselves, 
shall compose the Conference ; and then, as a Conference, proceed to 
legislate for each other and the body ; being themselves at once the 
sources, the judges, and the administrators of the law; making them- 
selves a general and ultimate court of appeal; and leaving to all classes 
of the community, as their only alternatives, implicit obedience — an 
abandonment of their places in the church — or excommunication, with 
all the odium and lacerations which Wesleyan Methodists so well know 
how to inflict. Your system, Sir, has by some been denominated 
TORYISM; but improperly: for the most ultra-toryism of the present 



55 

day, is the perfection of liberty compared with it, and would be deeply 
disgraced by assimulation to it. It is rather the absolutism of Spain 
under the atrocious Ferdinand, than the Toryism of Britain. This did 
allow the people a voice in the election of many officers, both civil and 
parochial ; and would have continued unto us not only the nominal 
representation of the rotten boroughs, but the real representation of the 
counties too. But Wesleyan Methodism, in the race for power, leaves 
the proudest Toryism far behind, and laughs to scorn its paltry aims 
and feeble efforts. Priding- itself in hating democracy as it hates sin, it 
utterly condemns that palladium of liberty, representation ; disallows 
that freedom of inquiry and discussion, of petition and remonstrance, 
which the members of other religious communities enjoy ; tells its peo- 
ple, in effect, that they have nothing to do with legislation and govern- 
ment, except to obey and submit ; and raises a throne to be occupied 
exclusively by its circuit preachers, on which is written, in characters 
which those who run may read,— an oligarchical despotism. 

I know, Sir, that the defence which oppression has always at hand, 
and which both political and religious partisans are ever ready to support 
and receive, will be set up in reference to the preceding, or any other 
similar . accounts ; and that we shall be told, they are full of exaggera- 
tions and misstatements. But, knowing, as I do, the evasions and 
deliberate falsehoods to which recourse is had to shield the character 
and support the antichristian power of the ministry among you — 
knowing, as I do, what you have said and written, and that one of your 
own members who heard you in Norfolk-street chapel on the memorable 
morning of November 23rd, 1834, unblushingly maintained, in a public 
shop in this town, that you never mentioned Mr. Allin on that occasion, 
until another member of yours was found to confront and silence, 
though not to shame him, — any defence set up will be received by me 
with no ordinary caution. 

Do not imagine, Sir, that I intend to represent all the Wesleyan 
ministers as equally erroneous in principle, or oppressive in practice : 
or that I wish to represent any of them as acting worse than other men 
would act, placed under the influence of the same system and circum- 
stances. It is to such influence that I attribute your wrongs : and partly 
to illustrate the connexion that exists between your despotic form and 
principles of government, and correspondent practical injuries, have I 
adduced the preceding facts. A connexion this which eternal wisdom has 
established, and which will no more be separated by despotic preachers 
than by any other class of despots. The persons, Sir, who make 
themselves the depositories of absolute power will gradually become its 
VICTIMS ; and the same influence which converted a West Indian 
slave-holder into a monster of inhumanity, will inevitably deteriorate 
the principles and character of Wesleyan preachers. Not only is it true 
that irresponsible power is safe only in the hands of perfect virtue, but 
the most perfect virtue found among men is as much endangered by its 
connexion with such power, as the welfare of others is hazarded by its 
exercise: nor is it certain that under such influence, even the original 
rectitude of paradise itself would be secure. To imagine that divine grace 
must preserve you untainted, when you voluntarily rush into tempta- 



56 

tion, or that it must keep you from being blinded by the ambition which 
you are gratifying-, or from being corrupted by the power to which 
others are entitled, but which you unrighteously monopolize, is to indi- 
cate, not pious confidence, but that presumption, the absurd expecta- 
tions of which the God of grace will disappoint. Of this, your present 
history is a proof so legible, that all other eyes except your own can 
easily discern it; and, if possible, to open yours, as well as for my own 
justification, I have placed before you some of the sickening details 
contained in this and the preceding letter. Could I consider the facts 
thus detailed, as having no natural connexion with great principles, but 
as originating in individual passion or caprice, or in circumstances purely 
incidental, much as I should then deplore them, yet I should deem them 
of comparatively trifling importance. Their connexion, however, with 
the absolute power claimed and exercised by you, is too plain to be 
mistaken ; and they are obviously the natural results of bad principles 
of government. Here is the fundamental error, the crying evil of your 
system ; and the cause of the discontents of which you so loudly com- 
plain. You may expect peace ; but, in a country where freedom is 
understood, what peace can there be, what peace ought there to be, while 
your ambition is so rampant, and your acts of injustice are so flagrant 
and numerous ? The convulsions which are shaking the foundations of 
your Connexion, you may attribute to Satan and his counsels ; but the 
only Satan they require is your insatiable lust of power'; and the only 
necessary counsels are formed in your exclusive Conferences — embodied 
in your debasing and enslaving laws, — and perfected in those cruel and 
oppressive practices, some of which have been set before you. 

The only effectual remedy for the crying evils thus existing among 
you will be found in the lowering of your lofty pretensions, and the 
admission of your people to the voice and influence in legislative and 
judicial proceedings, which so perfectly harmonize with their intellectual 
and moral constitution — the will of the divine Founder of Christianity 
— and those principles of civil liberty, so highly, and so justly esteemed 
by them. You may make trifling concessions — or you may somewhat 
extend, and more satisfactorily guarantee the privileges of the local 
meetings. But this, which is almost too much to expect from you, 
will be only the slight healing of quackery, instead of the perfect cure 
of well-directed skill. Would the people of Great Britain be satisfied to 
annihilate that branch of the legislature in which they are represented, 
and to leave the work of legislation as the exclusive prerogative of the 
aristocracy, provided they might be allowed to assist in the execution 
of the laws so made ? or would they thereby obtain a guarantee for the 
continuance of liberty ? Would it satisfy us, Sir, to have laws made 
without our consent, affecting our persons, our property, and all the 
conveniences and rights of social life, provided we might have the ex- 
ite pleasure of obliging the unwilling to obey those laws, however 
iniquitous they might be? I imagine not. Yet this is the present liberty 
not only of your private members, but of every class of officers among 
you ; and, without their representation in Conference, it is all the 
liberty they can enjoy. You may guarantee the integrity of the local 
but so long as Conference is supreme, were it to decree that 



57 

no person shall share the privileges of membership without the regular 
payment of a stipulated sum, and that no one shall sustain the office 
of leader without producing a given sum per member for his class ; no 
local meeting would have any other liberty than to enforce the law, 
foolish, or even wicked as it might be. The same principle is applicable 
to the whole of your economy. And the abstract possibility of such a 
circumstance demonstrates, what, indeed, all history proves, that with- 
out a voice in the supreme legislative assemblies, the liberty of a people 
CANNOT be secure. 

I am aware, Sir, that when attempting to vindicate your usurped 
authority, you deny that the principles of civil government properly 
apply to religious communities ; and profess to find the warrant of your 
power in the New Testament. Though, therefore, I have stated the 
ground on which we contend for the application of the great principles 
of civil liberty to religious associations — and though 1 stand prepared to 
maintain that ground against any assailant, yet I intend, God willing, 
to try your pretensions by the test you have selected ; and hesitate not 
to pledge myself to shew that the power you exercise is as repugnant to 
the law of Christianity, as it is to the recognized principles of civil 
government. A state of health, indeed, incompatible with close applica- 
tion, together with other necessary duties, may prevent the speedy 
accomplishment of these intentions : at the same time, I trust you will 
not have much cause to complain on account of delay. 

The present letter, which has already been drawn out to a much 
greater length than I either intended or wished, I ought not to close 
without a few remarks on the slanderous attacks made on me by you 
and your coadjutors. The latter, indeed, deserve little notice. " The 
testimony of an Eye and Ear Witness" is a perfect abortion : and like 
one, after presenting before the public eye its swelling words of vanity 
for a few days, it suddenly disappeared, and passed into that oblivion for 
which its utter worthlessness had so fully prepared it. Were it not 
that it might gratify the vanity of the empty mind that produced the 
bubble, I would transcribe a passage for the amusement of some into 
whose hands this may fall ; but let it rest in peace ! The anonymous 
libels of " a Member of the Old Connexion," present another character. 
Not only does the author display " the meanness that creeps, and the 
venom that hisses," but, sheltered as he imagines himself to be, under 
impenetrable darkness, he throws out his venom with a profuseness, 
which, were malignity a property of the material organization, must 
instantly dissipate his stock, and leave him, from mere exhaustion, 
harmless as the new-born babe. But, fearing no lack of supplies, he 
pours out the blackening and disfiguring poison on all who happen to 
cross his path, without respect of persons. Dr. Warren, over whose 
character the breath of slander had not passed, until his eyes were opened 
to discern Wesleyan abuses, according to this libeller, " whilst supported 
for the regular work of an itinerant minister, felt no demur of conscience 
in employing that time which ought to have been deyoted to pastoral 
duties, to the attainment of collegiate honours ; and might have been 
seen parading the streets of Glasgow with the university badge upon 
hie person. A gentleman in Sheffield, also, whose piety, benevolence, 



58 

and zeal deserve the highest praise — who, till he left the Wesleyans, 
was lauded to the skies, and at times was flattered in public meetings by 
the reverends of your body, to absolute loathing — and at whose feet, 
would he but return, his malignant slanderer, with the meanness that 
characterises reptiles of his class, would be one of the first to crouch and 
crawl, left your community from "disappointed ambition" — while now, 
" his vanity, egotism, and tyranny, can scarcely be borne :" and the 
opposers of your usurpation are classically denominated, " Political 
Radicals, Kilhamitish declaimers," &c. 

That I should have become the object of the rancorous vituperation 
of such a writer as this, is to me matter neither of surprise nor regret. 
His consummate ignorance, indeed, almost paralyzes hostility, and checks 
the indignant feelings which his bigotry and rancour might otherwise 
inspire. On him truth imposes no obligation, and falsehood no re- 
straints : nor is it easy to conceive that the blush of shame can by any 
possibility be raised on a cheek, so entirely and deeply encased in igno- 
rance and hardihood, and to which the crimson dye is impelled by a heart 
so insensible to correct moral principles. 

Take the following, Sir, as specimens of his TRUTH. I am " late 
President of the Methodist New Connexion — now President of the New 
Connexion College, — and the great luminary of Kilhamitism ;" — "the 
Address to the Delegates originated in Dr. Warren's case, and was in- 
tended for him and his friends" — and I "know full well that the balance 
of power" in the New Connexion, "is in the hands of the priesthood ! ! !" 
Take, likewise, a few proofs of his justice as a critic, and of his charity 
as a christian : — The addres to the delegates, is a "silly but vile pro- 
duction" — " a rodomontade" — distinguished equally by " its baseness, 
deceptiveness, and folly" — containing "raving expressions — rhetorical 
flourishes — and extravagant hyperbole ;" — while I am among those 
" who for mere party purposes will make any sacrifice of truth and 
justice" — am influenced by " a settled and rooted malignity — whine 
about injustice, intolerence, and despotism" — have " lent myself to the 
foul work of calumny and misrepresentation" — and have perhaps been 
induced for " the obtainment of a morsel of bread, to become the amanu- 
ensis of some lordly layman, who has made" me "the instrument of dis- 
persing his own venom." These, Sir, arc doubtless choice specimens of 
classic taste and fine feeling ! Respecting the writer of the productions 
from which they are selected I shall not at present say all I think; only 
if that writer be a reverend colleague of yours, of Nottingham celebrity, 
as is represented by private report, let him take heed. The principles 
that characterise those productions can throw suspicion only over the 
past, as well as prepare dangers for the future. 

Concerning your " Reply," I have already stated that its more appro- 
priate title would be — Misrepresentation exemplified. — Your partisans, 
however, boast that this is not proved ; and, therefore, they reiterate 
your assertions as truth : how little reason they have for this, will soon 
appear. May I ask, what misrepresentations you have exposed ? The 
charges were — 1. That you had published a pirated edition of my 
address, with introductory remarks designed to misrepresent both the 
author and his work. On this subject you preserve a very convenient 



59 

silence. — 2. That you had prefixed to that address, as a fact, what you 
could scarcely but know was a falsehood. — 3. That you had made an 
unprecedented avowal of bigotry. — 4. That you imputed as the writer's 
only motive, what is proved by the address itself to have been only a 
subordinate one. These charges you do not attempt to disprove by 
shewing the correctness of your original statements ; you are therefore 
found guilty. — 5. That you laboured to practice deception on the pub- 
lic, by denominating the evidence about to be published, " hearsay 
reports of certain statements," &c. The proofs of this charge, which 
were succinctly given, you, with your usual disingenuousness, refuse to 
notice, except for a purpose which deeply implicates your integrity, and 
which I shall just now expose. As proofs of your intention to mislead, 
you durst not grapple with them : and that intention is therefore proved 
against you. If, then, as you say, such intention combines "the guilt 
of a liar with the cowardice of a poltroon," the laurels you are reaping 
are not those of renown. — 6. That you besought God to "parch the 
tongues and paralyze the arms" of the opposers of Methodism. This, 
you, as I before stated, deny. My witnesses, however, firmly adhere to 
their former testimony ; and instead of rejecting that testimony, because 
in so early a part of the service you were likely to be " warmed only by 
the fire of devotion ;" when I recollect your character, and the subjects 
you had determined to introduce. I perceive the probability that you 
would take into the pulpit as much of the fierceness of bigotry as of the 
flame of devotion. You also deny having wished a curse to any man. 
But why do you not tell us what you did wish, and ivhy you wished it ; 
and prove to us, that in your horrifying language there was nothing but 
the longsuffering spirit of Christ, and devotion's softening flame? That 
you employed that language for some purpose, even your hardihood will 
not enable you to deny, though you possess not the virtue to acknowledge 
it. Tell us, Sir, honestly and plainly, what that purpose was; and then 
we shall see, but not till then, how far you have been misrepresented 
here. 

Such is the whole extent to which you have succeeded in exposing 
misrepresentation : — that you have succeeded far better in exemplifying 
it is easily seen. Did my limits allow, I could shew this to be the case 
with the following allegations among others. — That I have torn your 
language from its connexion : — that 1 pronounced judgment before I 
had obtained proof of guilt : — that I and others have incorrectly cha- 
racterised your address: — that the account (forced from me by your 
dishonesty) respecting the care taken in the collecting of evidence, was 
published for the purpose of "getting my character up, and yours down :" 
— and that the address published as part of your reply, is, either in 
language or spirit, the address actually delivered by you in Norfolk-street 
Chapel. 

Most sincerely do I wish that your delinquencies ended here. But 
they do not ; and I now, in the face of your own community, and of the 
British public, charge the following upon you, as utter, and, I fear I 
must add, deliberate falsehoods : — 

" But this is not the only presumption against Mr. Alibi's candour which his conduct 
furnishes, notwithstanding all his nourish : for secondly — when he had received my 



60 

corrections, accompanied T>y au offer to meetliim either in my own Louse or in any other 
{ilac- might choose, in order to satisfy him that the report of my prayer and 

e, lie not only did not choose to accept the offer of an interview, but 
Is, in the face of my solemn denial, and the denial of others of my hearers who 
have conversed with himself 'ton the subject, published the whole to the world as troth ; 
and the only use which he has made of the corrections, about his efforts to obtain 
which he takes so much credit to himself, is to give a more specious colouring and 
loiiler circulation to the shameless slander." — Reply, pp. 5, 6. 

You here affirm concerning the witten document I sent to you — 
first, that notwithstanding the corrections furnished by you and others, 
I "published the WHOLE to the world as truth :" and, secondly, that 
" THE ONLY use" made of the corrections, was " to give a more 
specious colouring- and wider circulation to the shameless slander."' 
Now, Sir, happily, I still possess the document which was in your 
hands from Saturday evening till Monday forenoon ; and the friend still 
lives, to whose care it was confided, and who received your corrections. 
I ask, then — were not the following things stated in that document ? 
1, That you had represented me as having written to ministers or 
members of yours, to induce them to join the New Connexion. — 2, 
That you had denominated me "a Kilhamite," or "a Kilhamite 
preacher." — 3, That in reference to the council alleged by you to have 
been "held in hell," you had represented me either as one of the coun- 
sellors, or as employed by them in furthering their designs. — 4, That I 
had reason to suppose you were the author of the anonymous libel, 
signed "An Old Methodist." — And 5, That you had stated, the Rev. 
W. R. Hamilton of Leeds, was so disgusted at my conduct, that were 
he to see me in the street, he would pass to the other side. Were not 
these some of the things stated in my communication to you ? But 
none of them had been presented by me before the public. Not, indeed, 
because I doubted the correctness of some of them ; but partly because 
I had no wish to pursue you to the verge even of truth ; — and pi 
because I wished to confine mj^self, as nearly as possible, to unques- 
tionable things. So that the real state of the case is this — out of seven 
circumstances named in that document, TWO only had been adduced. 
In addition to this, in the letter sent to me, describing your proceed- 
ings, you denied the use of two degrading terms, there attributed to 
you; and, as I stated in my first letter, they were both omitted. Yet in 
the face of these facts, you can sit down and deliberately write the 
falsehoods, and send them forth under your hand and seal — that I had 
published the whole to the world as truth — and the only use made of 
the corrections, was to give a more specious colouring and wider circu- 
lation to the shameless slander ! I can conceive it possible, Sir, that 
you might have forgotten some of the statements now enumerated, and 
the whole of which you had read ; but that you should have forgotten 
all of them, I deem an impossibility; more especially, after some of 
them — as the cases of Mr. Hamilton, &c, had been subjects of much 
conversation with the friend who waited upon you, and after I had 
expressly declared that I had omitted the two expressions disavowed 
by you in the letter before named.* I therefore feel not only at liberty, 
but compelled, thus publicly to denounce your statements, as the most 
the First Letter to Mr. M'Lean, p 11. 



61 

direct and atroeious falsehoods I have ever been called upon to rebut, 
not excepting- those of that arch-imposter, Carlile: — falsehoods obviously 
put forth to discredit statements which you found it impossible to refute, 
and to induce your deceived partisans to raise the song of triumph at 
the expense of truth. Sir, I solemnly put it to your conscience, (unless 
it be seared) whether such conduct is not more befitting- the agent of 
" the father of lies," than the professed servant of God ; and whether it 
does not indicate a destitution of principle, incompatible either with the 
real enjoyment or the honourable ministration of religion ? I speak thus 
plainly and publicly, because you have " sinned in the face of the sun ;" 
and I call on your people, whose confidence you have abused, and upon 
your Conference, to which you profess yourself amenable, either to 
require you to furnish an explanation, or an apology for such reckless 
violations of truth, or at once to proclaim to the world, that, in their 
judgment, truth is not a christian virtue, and a respect for it has ceased, 
among you, to be a qualification for the christian ministry. 

Do not soften your pillow, Sir, with the supposition, that these are 
the expressions of vindictive feeling. I indeed look on your proceedings 
with abhorrence ; — and on you with mingled emotions of pity and shame: 
and until you confess and forsake your evil ways, such are the feelings 
I shall continue to indulge. But assured as I am that you can inflict no 
real injury on me, instead of vindictiveness, I only wish you and your 
system purged from the dross by which the value of both is so much 
lessened, and rendered as preeminently useful as, in some respects, 
both aiv fitted to become. Trusting that in spite of yourselves this 
will yet be the case, 

I remain, Rev. Sir, yours sincerely, 

Sheffield, Jan. 17, 1835. THOS. ALLIN. 



APPENDIX. 



SINCE the publication of the first edition of these Letters, a pamphlet has appeared, 
by ' : Another Member of the Methodist Old Connexion," which is in perfect keeping 
with its predecessors; and which, judging from the fact that it is composed of the same 
ingredients, mixed up in about the same proportions, may fairly be concluded to be 
the production of the same mind. A bare enumeration of all the slanderous mis- 
statements it contains, would require little less room than the pamphlet itself; mis- 
statements, many of them obviously wilful, and put forth for no assignable purpose 
except to degrade me in the estimation of such as are either too indolent or too con- 
fiding to examine for themselves ; and thus to discredit facts and reasonings which 
cannot be disproved. The virulence of the poison is, however, its own antidote : and 
the only brand of infamy the monster requires, is broadly and deeply impressed upon 
its front by its progenitor himself. No one can justly suspect either the parent or 
his offspring of those insincere professions of piety and candour with which I am so 
liberally charged ; for as there is no semblance of the things, so, happily for consist- 
ency, there are no professions of them : and the cardinal virtues in the moral code 
adopted, appear to be "hatred, envy, and all uncharitableness." Most truly, there- 
fore, am T informed, that I am " now in the gall of bitterness;" inasmuch as i'ua 

I 



62 

bitterest gall which " A Member," and " Another Member of the Methodist Old Con- 
nexion'' could mix up, has been poured upon me as abundantly as their capabilities 
will allow ; and no one, after the specimens furnished by them, will question their 
powers of production. 

This last performance I should leave to sink under the load of its own obliquities, 
were it not for two allegations in which others are concerned, and its attempted defence 
of Mr. M'Lean. With his accustomed meekness, and charity, and regard for truth, 
the writer states, " you and your friend have been appointed as a sort of committee 
to treat with the disaffected of other societies, and to arrange with them until your 
next Conference : or, in other words, you have received letters of marque, as two char- 
tered pirates, to assail, rob, and destroy all churches, and to take prisoners men of all 
creeds and colours." " It is in some degree satisfactory to learn that your mission 
and work have not received the unanimous approbation of your body ; that your con- 
duct at Gateshead was opposed by some respectable men of your communion; and 
that some also of your own ministers are prepared to oppose the ratification of the 
treaty you then attempted to establish between yourselves and some of our own people, 
who, but for your interference, would ere this have returned to order and happiness." 
To demand proofs of these assertions from this reckless and degraded libeller, is, as 
he well knows, to require an impossibility, because proofs do not exist ; as the appoint- 
ment alledged on the one hand, and the opposition said to have been made on the 
other, are PURE FABRICATIONS. And lest it should be imagined that, after all, 
he is but half an imposter, being expert only in creating fictions and imposing them 
upon us as facts, he supplies some choice specimens of the effrontery with which he can 
deny the truth. As those who are labouring to purge Methodism from its impurities 
and to increase its capabilities of usefulness, by limiting the arbitrary power of the 
circuit preachers, are generally represented as the enemies of Methodism, and as la- 
bouring for its destruction ; by which means excellencies are confounded with defects, 
and essential good with evils which have been unwarrantably superinduced, I had in 
my third letter thus adverted to the fact : " The antiscriptural and irresponsible power, 
claimed and exercised by the circuit preachers among you, called by you Methodism, 
and the removal of which you would represent as the destruction of every truly valu- 
able, instead of being even essential to Methodism, is in fact an incubus, &c." On 
this he observes, " I am compelled to denounce it as a direct and atrocious falsehood. 
I solemnly put it to your own conscience, I put it to the inhabitants of Sheffield, I put 
it to the community at large, whether the preachers of the Wesley an Connexion con- 
sider their irresponsible poicer as every thing valuable in Methodism." What the 
Wesleyan ministers "consider," they shall tell for themselves. 

The members of the "Wesleyan Methodist Association," amounting now, as is 
said, to fifty thousand, ask for no change either in the doctrines, or itinerant ministry, 
or religious ordinances, or general economy of Methodism. They only require 
securities against such an unrighteous exercise of power as is partially unfolded in 
the preceding pages, by increasing the authority of the local meetings, and by giving 
the laity some additional influence in district meetings and Conference : they have 
not, however, yet demanded the influence actually possessed by every Presbyterian 
and Independent church, and by the New Connexion and Primitive Methodists. 
Their alleged factiousness, and ' malignity, and hypocrisy, and wickedness — not 
excepting their opposition to the Theological Institution, are directed exclusively to 
this object. The whole of Methodism, except the despotic power of the circuit preachers, 
they desire to preserve inviolate; and even that power they wish to limit only so far 
as both right and expediency require. Now in reference to that power which is thus 
the onlv object of attack, what do the preachers " consider?" Why, eighty-seven of 
the most influential of them, in a document circulated both separately and in the 
Magazine, have stated, " It is unnecessary to inquire into the origin of these destructive 
designs; which, if accomplished, would leave to the Methodism established by our 
venerable founder, nothing but the name; and which are not alarming, only because 
they aim at so entire a subversion of the whole system, that we feel it next to im- 
possible for our brethren to be generally seduced by the most specious appearance or 
plausible pretext that can be put upon them." Here it is affirmed of those who merely 
oppose the despotic power of the preachers, that they aim at the entire " SUBVER- 
SION OF THE WHOLE SYSTEM;" and would leave to Methodism "NOTHING 
BUT THE NAME !" Similar testimonies, too, might he multiplied in abundance. 
Yet the preachers do not identify their offensive power with -Methodism; or represent 
Ls removal as " the destruction of every thing truly valuable;" and the assertion that 



63 

they do so, is " a direct and atrocious falsehood." — If to deny the truth be falsehood, 
and if to deny what is known to he the truth, be " wilful and atrocious falsehood," then 
may the charge brought against me, be justly retorted upon a libeller, the conceal- 
ment of whose name is the only indication that shame has any place hi his breast. 

The defence of Mr. M'Lean which he has attempted, presents the same odious 
character. The maledictory language employed by that gentleman, he calls " a scrip- 
tural expression," and affirms, that " it was used in the scriptural and proper sense," 
and " has been often uttered under similar circumstances by men whose piety and 
prudence have never been questioned." To the inquiry, why he has furnished no 
proof of these affirmations I only one answer can be given : — He knew them to be 
incapable of proof. But as Mr. M Lean must be defended, and as no one having any 
character to lose appeared disposed to risk it in so hazardous an adventure, this writer 
having first screened himself, by an anonymous appellation from " the exposure" and 
shame which he felt such a defence must merit, would hazard a few hardy assertions 
which, though false, might be received by some as equivalent to truth; and, baring set 
himself to deceive, a few additional deceptions were of little moment.. 

His most important work, however, was yet to be performed, in repelling the charge 
at the close of the preceding letter : a charge, which, had it been repelled by a clear 
and satisfactory explanation, would have been cheerfully withdrawn. But that such 
an explanation has been furnished by the author of " The Exposure" I cannot allow. 
He seems, indeed, to have felt the difficulty of his task; and therefore labours, by 
putting on his boldest front, and by combining his utmost hardihood «f assertion with 
his greatest virulence of abuse, to conceal obliquity which he could neither defend nor 
disprove. Amidst the ebullitions of rancorous feeling and the language of scorn in 
which he here indulges, the only explanatory circumstances stated by him are these : 
" The only article in the whole ' document' worthy the name of a charge, was the one 
which represented Mr. M. as employing the language of cursing. This was the only 
point at issue between you and him. Here his testimony and evidence were to be 
opposed to yours, and on this subject he presented your friend who waited upon him, 
with such corrections of the charge as entirely removed its offensive character, and to 
these corrections he pledged his veracity as a Christian minister. Notwithstanding 
this, you published the whole of the v charge, as if no such corrections had been pre- 
sented." 

That I considered the maledictory language of Mr. M. to be the only subject not 
satisfactorily explained, was distinctly denied at the close of the first letter; and is still 
denied. The assertion that " the only article in the whole document worthy the name 
of a charge, was the one which represented Mr. M. as employing the language of curs- 
ing," arises, naturally enough, out of those principles and habits which so strongly 
characterise this writer, and of which his publication presents so ample an " Exposure." 
That " document" contained "charges" which, if true, fixed upon Mr. M. the guilt of 
dealing out insult and wilful falsehoods in the face of a large congregation, instead of 
preaching the gospel of Christ. That these are ' ; not worthy the name, of charges," 
may be affirmed by a libeller who cannot admit the criminality of falsehood without 
sealing his own utter condemnation : but every man who knows how to appreciate the 
claims of truth, will place this among the author's delinquencies, and receive it as an 
additional evidence of his conciousness that the cause lie had undertaken was inde- 
fensible by honourable means. The same may be said of his statement that Mr. M. 
had furnished such an explanation of his horrifying language " as entirely removed its 
offensive character." That he had used the language, Mr. M. admitted; but said it 
referred to the enemies of Christ, or of the church generally. Now this may not be 
offensive to one who is as regardless of what others would call decency, as he is of 
truth ; but every man who knows what is due to the character of Christianity, and to 
the feelings of a christian congregation, will pronounce such language to be, even 
according to Mr. M.'s own shewing of it, a libel on Christianity, and an insult to a 
christian assembly. 

But Mr. M'Lcan's statement concernhigwhathe had corrected and I had published, 
referred, we are told, not to the entire " document" sent to hini, but only to the charge 
that he had employed " the language of cursing:" — "that this was his meaning too, 
I cannot but know :" — " it is borne out by every rule of fair and legitimate criticism :" 
— and " nothing but downright prejudice and blind malignity can misunderstand" it. 
Statements like these, in reference to such a case, would excite astonishment, were 
they made by any other writer ; but in this suicidal " Exposure" the only astonishing 
circumstance is to find a single fact honestly stated, or a solitary principle fairiv ap- 



64 

plied. " The facts of the case," to use the language of this writer, " are few and easily 
told." Mr. M'Lean, in order previously to discredit evidence about to be adduced 
against him, denominated it, " hearsay reports of certain statements." To counteract 
an insinuation so dishonourable to him, a brief statement was given of the whole 
course pursued with respect to the reports actually collected. And among other cir- 
cumstances it was stated, that they were sent to Mr. M. for his icritten corrections.* 
This explanation, rendered necessary by the most palpable disingenuousness, Mr. M., 
with his wonted charity, represented as a crafty and hypocritical attempt to exalt my- 
self and to degrade him : and to prove that in the conduct pursued there was no wish 
to ascertain the truth, he affirmed " the only use which he has made of the corrections, 
about his efforts to obtain which he takes so much credit to himself, is to give a more 
specious colouring and wider circulation to the shameless slander;" notwithstanding, 
at the same time, he knew that out of seven allegations sent to him, one was but in- 
cidentally named, and only a second animadverted upon. This, too, was not published, 
as Mr. M.'s defender falsely alleges, " as if no such corrections had been presented," 
for the correction furnished was fully given, and reasons were assigned for its non- 
acceptance. Such are all " the facts of the case." But these facts, so few, so plain, 
and so " easily told," place Mr. M. in a position the most unenviable ; and demand 
either an explanation or apology from him. He, however, offers nothirjg : and as no 
one whose character is worth the keeping appears disposed to risk it by avowing him- 
self the champion of such a cause, the services of a masked assassin are accepted, who 
most magnanimously labours to shield Mr. M. by the most flagrant violations of 
truth, and to fasten on his accuser the imputation of malignity. 

In addition to the preceding epitome of facts, I may observe that the statement of 
Mr. M. refers not to one particular charge as contradistinguished from others ; but to 
use his own language, to " the report of the prayer and sermon" or to what he had 
previously designated " hearsay reports" &c. ; and which contained not one only, but 
all the charges specified. It was that report of " the prayer and sennon" which 
received his " corrections ;" but his blundering or crafty defender would limit the 
statement to one particular expression used in the prayer alone. Again : concerning 
the reports I had collected of " the prayer and sermon," I had stated that they had 
been sent to Mr. M. : and in reference to this part of my -conduct what does he say} 
Does he inform his readers that some allegations in the document sent were not pub- 
licly preferred, though one was harshly and uncharitably pressed? No : that would 
have partially blunted the shaft With which he hoped to pierce his victim. All he says 
therefore, and which has been cited, (see p. 59,) is in substance thus given by himself: 
" The only use which he has made of the corrections, about his efforts to obtain which 
he takes so much credit to himself, is to give a more specious colouring and wider cir- 
culation to the shameless slander." Now I claimed credit for having sent to Mr. M., 
not a solitary allegation, but the reports collected. Mr. M. furnished, not a single 
correction of an isolated charge, but " corrections" of the whole document. And when 
he had named that document as " the report of his prayer and sermon," and " the cor- 
rections" I had sought, — in order that he might prove the apparent candour to be 
hypocritical affectation, he affirmed, without any qualification, that I had " published 
the WHOLE to the world as truth, and the ONLY use made of the corrections" &c. 
Language this which in itself admits only of one construction — that the whole " report 
of the prayer and sermon" was published as truth. Such, as I doubt not Mr. If. well 
knows, was the meaning annexed to the language by his own friends : and such must 
be the meaning annexed by all who have no other sources of information than those 
furnished by his u Reply." Yet this reckless falsifier of principles and facts can affirm 
that "nothing but downright prejudice and blind malignity" can so understand it ! 
The man who thus labours to shield another, may well deem concealment necessary 
to preserve himself from the contempt which such conduct merits. But while that 
concealment is preserved, which is not likely .to be long, let him remember who has 
said — m B e not deceived : — liars — shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 

• That I considered at the time to be a much less questionable mode than oral 
at evanta b*ve ronfi'-n^d T " 

f^TSI'Oitlv will be published, in Letters to tie Rev. J Maclean, M The (Internment 
yf IVesleyan Metl.odts.it unscriptural." 

1. M.UII', fllWltll Slil Ki-ll m. 



) 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^j 



029 751 038 1 



JfrvSGU 



I Hi 



■ v ■...'.■ ' 






w^mm 



'•-"'■ :■■•,■'■■' 









8*3 



URvSroB 



